By Ryan Smith
Senior Pop Culture & Entertainment Reporter
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Roger Waters has been praised by fans for rejecting Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's request to use one of his tracks in an Instagram campaign. Facebook has not yet responded to Newsweek's request for clarity on the offer made to Waters.
In a video that has gone viral in recent days, Waters, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd, claims that the social media mogul requested to use the classic 1979 track "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)."
However, Waters—who was speaking at a forum supporting jailed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange—responded: "The answer is, 'f*** you! No f***ing way!"
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The musician's stance ignited an outpouring of praise on Twitter, with journalist Glenn Greenwald writing: "Put Roger Waters in charge of anti-trust law in the US."
"Roger Waters of Pink Floyd is a hero," said @birdlaw12. "That's the tweet."
"Another reason to absolutely love @rogerwaters," wrote @Bosco4Indy. "This man is a hero."
Reacting to the video, @surbrewery tweeted: "roger waters saying f*** you to mark zuckerberg's offer for using his song is literally the best thing to have happened all week."
"Wow! Let's have a few more like Roger Waters please!!!" @OMeemz stated.
Said @Eve6: "roger waters is the only boomer rockstar that matters. the only one who's managed to avoid becoming a cartoon. god bless him."
"Roger Waters might just be the final push of inspiration for me to delete and leave Instagram from my life," wrote @jnicolas_reyero. "I left Fakebook 4 years ago and I don't miss it one bit."
Meanwhile, @thxdoorz wrote on the micro-blogging platform: "i love you, roger waters fighting against capitalism, i love you."
In the viral video, which was dated June 10 and shared on Twitter by Mexico's La Jornada on Saturday, rocker Waters pulled out a sheet of paper, as he said: "This is something that I actually put in my folder when I came out here today.
"You have no idea what it is—nobody does—because it arrived on the internet to me this morning. It's a request for the rights to use my song, 'Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2),' in the making of a film to promote Instagram."
He went on: "So it's a missive from Mark Zuckerberg to me... with an offer of a huge, huge amount of money and the answer is, 'f*** you! No f***ing way!
"And I only mention that because it's the insidious movement of them to take over absolutely everything. So those of us who do have any power, and I do have a little bit—in terms of control of the publishing of my songs I do anyway. So I will not be a party to this bull****, Zuckerberg."
Reading out a portion of the letter alleged to be from Zuckerberg, Waters said: "We want to thank you for considering this project. We feel that the core sentiment of this song is still so prevalent and necessary today, which speaks to how timeless a work [it is]."
"It's true, and yet they want to sojourn it," Waters continued. "They want to use it to make Facebook and Instagram even bigger and more powerful than it already is, so that it can continue to censor all of us in this room and prevent this story about Julian Assange getting out to the general public..."
He added: "You think, how did this little pr***, who started off going, 'She's pretty, we'll give her a 4 out of 5, she's ugly, we'll give her a 1.' How the f*** did he get any power in anything? And yet here he is, one of the most powerful idiots in the world."
A spokesperson for Facebook confirmed to Newsweek Instagram's marketing team had reached out to Waters, but stated that no details were formally discussed. They added: "We respect the decisions made by musicians and creators on whether or not they would like to work with us."
Rogers is an outspoken supporter of Assange, who has been held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in the U.K. since 2019, after he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London to face U.S. extradition charges.
Prior to his forcible removal, Assange had spent seven years in the embassy where he sought diplomatic asylum as he faced alleged sexual offense charges in Sweden.
The former WikiLeaks boss has long maintained that the Swedish charges were a ruse for U.S. intelligence officials to capture and extradite him to the U.S.
Prosecutors in the U.S. allege 17 charges under the Espionage Act against Assange, in addition to one charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He could face up to 175 years in prison, if convicted.
A U.S. request to extradite Assange was rejected in January 2021 by a British judge, who stated that his "mental health would deteriorate causing him to commit suicide with the 'single minded determination' of his autism spectrum disorder."
Newsweek has contacted a representative for Roger Waters for comment.
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