Zuckerberg defends Facebook's refusal to fact-check political speeches

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday defended the social media platform's refusal to take down content it considers newsworthy "even if it goes against our standards." But while he promoted free expression, limitations were place on coverage of his remarks at Georgetown University.

Reporters were not allowed to ask questions only students were given that chance, filtered by a moderator. Facebook and Georgetown barred news organizations from filming. Instead organizers provided a livestream on Georgetown's social media site and made available video shot by Facebook.

"It's quite ironic," said Sally Hubbard, director of enforcement strategy at the Open Markets Institute and a former state prosecutor.

More generally, she said of Facebook, "The key to free expression is to not have one company control the flow of speech to more than 2 billion people, using algorithms that amplify disinformation in order to maximize profits."

Facebook, Google, Twitter and other companies are trying to oversee internet content while also avoiding infringing on First Amendment rights. The pendulum has swung recently toward restricting hateful speech that could spawn violence.

The shift follows mass shootings in which the suspects have posted racist screeds online or otherwise expressed hateful views or streamed images of attacks.

Facebook also has come under criticism for not doing enough to filter out phony political ads.

"Right now, we're doing a very good job at getting everyone mad at us," Zuckerberg told the packed hall at Georgetown.

He said serious threats to expression are coming from places such as China, where social media platforms used by protesters are censored, and from court decisions restricting the location of internet users' data in certain countries.

"I'm here today because I believe that we must continue to stand for free expression," he said.

People of varied political beliefs are trying to define expansive speech as dangerous because it could bring results they don't accept, Zuckerberg said. "I personally believe this is more dangerous to democracy in the long term than almost any speech."

Taking note of mounting criticism of the market dominance of Facebook and other tech giants, Zuckerberg acknowledged the companies' centralized power but said it's also "decentralized by putting it directly into people's hands. ... Giving people a voice and broader inclusion go hand in hand." John Stanton, a former fellow at Georgetown who heads a group called the "Save Journalism Project," called the CEO's appearance "a joke."

Zuckerberg "is the antithesis of free expression," Stanton said in a statement. "He's thrown free speech, public education and democracy to the wayside in his thirst for power and profit."

The social media giant, with nearly 2.5 billion users around the globe, is under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators following a series of data privacy scandals, including lapses in opening the personal data of millions of users to Trump's 2016 campaign.

Facebook and other social media platforms have drawn accusations from President Donald Trump and his allies that their platforms are steeped in anti-conservative bias.

Zuckerberg recently fell into a tiff with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a leading Democratic presidential candidate, who ran a fake political ad on Facebook taking aim at the CEO. Warren has proposed breaking up big tech companies.

With the phony ad, she was protesting Facebook's policy of not fact-checking politicians' speech or ads in the same way it enlists outside parties to fact-check news stories and other posts.

"We think people should be able to see for themselves," Zuckerberg responded Thursday on the fact-checking issue. "If content is newsworthy, we don't take it down even if it goes against our standards." The social media network also rebuffed requests that it remove a misleading video ad from Trump's re-election campaign targeting Democrat Joe Biden.

A spokesman for Biden said Zuckerberg's speech was an effort "to cloak Facebook's policy in a feigned concern for free expression." "Facebook has chosen to sell Americans' personal data to politicians looking to target them with disproven lies and conspiracy theories, crowding out the voices of working Americans," campaign spokesman Bill Russo said in a statement.

Several of the students' questions to Zuckerberg at Georgetown pointed up the conflict. One asked, if Facebook supports free speech, "why is conservative content disproportionately censored?" But another asserted that the policy of not fact-checking political ads is pro-conservative.

"I think it would be hard to be biased against both sides," Zuckerberg replied, smiling.

Asked about the handling of questions, Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhjara said, "They were submitted by students as they walked into the room. And they're being picked at random by Georgetown.

Why $5-bn fine is just the tip of the iceberg of Facebook's settlement woes

US regulators are expected to unveil Wednesday a settlement with Facebook - a reported $5 billion fine that might be the least painful part of the agreement for the social network.

The deal, which follows a lengthy investigation by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), allows Facebook to avoid prosecution for its data protection lapses. The real question, however, remains what type of restrictions and requirements will be placed on the internet giant to ensure future compliance.

CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg holds a firm grasp on the reins of Facebook, which has some 2.7 billion users, and he will be held personally responsible for implementation of the settlement, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The young billionaire will be required to check in quarterly with the FTC to certify that his company is abiding by stipulations. A false statement, the WSJ reported, would be subject to penalties, an anonymous source with knowledge of the situation told the newspaper. Also responsible for compliance would be the company's board of directors.

Additionally, the FTC will allege that Facebook misled users about how it used their phone numbers and even a facial recognition tool, in a complaint that accompanies the settlement, The Washington Post reported.

The regulator's five-member board adopted the settlement deal in a 3-2 vote, the two votes against being from the panel's only Democrats, according to US media.

Investors saw the Democrats' votes as a sign that restrictions will not be overly severe, pushing share prices higher. Initial negotiations had included tens of billions of dollars in fines and strict measures, according to the Post.

The personal data that Facebook collects from more than 2.7 billion users is its most valuable asset, which it uses to generate immense advertising revenue thanks to refined targeting capabilities. It is precisely because of the way this data is used that the social network has found itself in hot water and is facing a serious crisis of confidence.

The FTC announced last year it reopened its investigation into a 2011 privacy settlement with Facebook after revelations that personal data on tens of millions of users was hijacked by the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, which was working on the Donald Trump campaign in 2016.

However the $5 billion fine, the largest penalty ever imposed by the FTC for privacy violations, is not likely to affect the company's overall health - Facebook earned more than $22 billion in 2018 alone after hauling in $55 billion in total revenue.

The company will publish its quarterly earnings Wednesday after Wall Street closes, which will undoubtedly provide Zuckerberg an opportunity to speak on the matter. He also could comment on the Justice Department's Tuesday announcement that it will launch a vast antitrust review of major online platforms, believed to include Facebook, to determine if they have "stifled" innovation or reduced competition.

Zuckerberg calls for global internet regulations to address harmful content

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg called for new global regulations governing the internet on Saturday, recommending overarching rules on hateful and violent content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.

In a statement that was also published as an op-ed in the Washington Post, Zuckerberg said the company is seeking regulations that would set baselines for prohibited content and require companies to build systems for keeping harmful content to a minimum.

"We have a responsibility to keep people safe on our services," he said. "That means deciding what counts as terrorist propaganda, hate speech and more. We continually review our policies with experts, but at our scale we’ll always make mistakes and decisions that people disagree with."

Zuckerberg’s comments mark his most visible effort so far to shape the discourse around the way the company collects information, uses and disperses it around the world.

Government Probes

Facebook has been the target of probes by various governments after news broke about a year ago that it allowed the personal data of tens of millions of users to be shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. Earlier this month, it came under fire for taking too long to take down a live video of a shooting in New Zealand and allowing it to be circulated across the internet. Millions of users also had personal information accessed via a recent breach.

Over the past year, lawmakers have focused greater scrutiny on the company and its immense influence, asking its executives -- including Zuckerberg -- to testify in front of Congress to explain the proliferation of misinformation, hate speech and election manipulation on the platform.

In his post, Zuckerberg proposes that "regulation could set baselines for what’s prohibited and require companies to build systems for keeping harmful content to a bare minimum." The tech industry has long said that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is vital to its ability to operate open platforms. The provision exempts companies from being liable for user-generated content.

Content Scanning

Facebook built a content-scanning system that over the years has added rules based on reactions to changes in user behavior or public uproar after an incident such as the New Zealand mass shooting. Last week, the company moved to ban content that references white nationalism or white separatism from the platform.

When the website’s users or computer systems report posts as problematic, they’re sent to one of the company’s 15,000 content moderators around the world, who are allowed to take content down only if it violates a rule.

But that process is not always precise. "Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech, and frankly I agree," Zuckerberg wrote in Saturday’s post. "I’ve come to believe that we shouldn’t make so many important decisions about speech on our own."

Zuckerberg said Facebook would welcome common standards for verifying political actors, citing practices deployed by advertisers in many countries of verifying identities before buying political ads. He also suggested updating laws to include "divisive political issues" in addition to candidates and elections.

“Every day we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, and how to prevent sophisticated cyberattacks,” he said. “But if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn’t ask companies to make these judgments alone.”

The billionaire said it’d be good for the internet if more countries adopted rules such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation as a common framework.

Facebook has an incentive to play a strong role in the debate around technology companies’ data regulation. The company’s rapid revenue growth and billions of dollars in profits are fueled by collecting numerous data points around its customers and making that easily available to advertisers.

Instagram Spinoff

Progressive groups have been urging the Federal Trade Commission to carve up Facebook and split off its popular services Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger into their own companies. In January, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook is planning to integrate the chat tools of those products, making a breakup harder to accomplish if the services are more tightly intertwined. The move has also increased concerns about transparency into how Facebook’s data collection works.

Privacy regulations "should protect your right to choose how your information is used -- while enabling companies to use information for safety purposes and to provide services," he said. "It shouldn’t require data to be stored locally, which would make it more vulnerable to unwarranted access."

Zuckerberg also said there should also be rules guaranteeing portability of data that protects information when it moves between services.

The Facebook chief’s statement was in keeping with his efforts this year to frame the company’s more critical problems as part of broader issues for the internet at large. Zuckerberg’s willingness to embrace regulation could pave the way toward taking the thorniest problems about speech and privacy out of Facebook’s hands -- or at least give the company more time to solve them.