Mark Zuckerberg, head of Facebook, said the social media giant is taking steps to reduce the amount of political content on its platforms and in its news feeds to channel users to more ‘healthy communities’.
“What we hear is that people do not want politics and struggle to take over their experience in our service,” he said, clearly exhausted by recent events. The commitment was vague. “We are still working on the best way to do this,” he acknowledged Wednesday during a lengthy conference call to discuss quarterly earnings. “We will continue to get people involved in political groups and discussions if they want to,” he said.
The move follows a turbulent election process that is distorted by misinformation, defined by rising extremism and culminates in a deadly siege of the American Capitol. Zuckerberg did not mention (and incredibly did not analysts during the call) former President Donald Trump’s indefinite ban from the site due to the incitement to violence and whether or when he may be allowed back. It appears to be the decision of an unusually oversight body of 40 individuals worldwide who have commissioned such decisions (and was first reported by the New York Times earlier this week.)
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Zuckerberg has insisted that only a small minority of content on the platform is political and the vast majority of users want it to remain so. ‘There was this madness in the whole society where a lot of things became politics and politics crept into everything. And we saw that people do not want it. They get in touch with friends and family … We could possibly do a better job … ‘
The move will not have an effect on Facebook, Wall Streeters assure, calling political advertising only a “low-single-figure” income, even in an active political season.
Facebook posted a strong number for the fourth quarter in 2020, but noted headwinds this year, which include an antitrust lawsuit by the FTC and most states and threats to repeal Article 230, giving the Internet broad legal immunity and freedom of content moderate.
Zuckerberg declined to comment on the FTC, but said: “Overall, the point I want to make is that it will be very helpful for us and the internet sector to have clearer rules and expectations around some of these social issues. , around how content should be handled, elections should be handled, what privacy norms the government wants to see. Because these questions all have compromises. ”
Free expression, privacy over security and social equity are all important and it is difficult for a private company to balance them. It is better to have clear guidance and clear rules for the internet. So this is something I’m going to pursue. ”
He reiterated that he thought Congress should in fact update Article 230, which is more than two decades old, “to make sure it works as people intended.” The rule helped the emerging internet to grow and flourish, ‘so any change must be carefully considered.’
The second theme of the call was bad Apple, which Zuckerberg complained about new policies that would suppress the targeted advertising, which helped increase revenue for Facebook and other companies. (Apple pumped up its quarterly results, which were even stronger, after the market closed today as well.)
Zuckerberg accuses the company, led by Tim Cook, of being an extremely competitive move if socially conscious. Separately, he noted a number of times how difficult it is for Apple to participate in messaging, since the iMessage app is pre-installed on iPhones.
“I think it’s shaped like …”, Zuckerberg begins to summarize Apple’s situation before the conference call link briefly dropped and he lost the train.
Happier remark, VR. Facebook, a leader in the field through Oculus, is building “one continuous ecosystem for spatial, immersive computers,” he said, enchanting the technology. “Some of the things we’re going to be able to build with VR and AR are some experiences I wanted to build from childhood.”