Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the man in the hot seat. After answering the US Senate and the EU Parliament, Zuckerberg's "apology tour" continues, this time in an interview to Kara Swisher of Recode.
The near 90-minute interview was fairly broad ranging, but mostly dealt with data privacy issues, the Cambridge Analytica scandal and how the entire episode was handled. One highlight of the interview though was Zuckerberg offering to fire himself - almost during the interview - for not responding appropriately to the scandal earlier.
I think it’s a big issue. But look, I designed the platform, so if someone’s going to get fired for this, it should be me.Mark Zuckerberg to Recode
Here are the key takeaways from Zuckerberg's interview to Recode.
On Facebook for Political Gain
Recode asked Zuckerberg whether or not he thinks Russia had a hand in the US elections and what he was doing to prevent Facebook from being used as a platform to influence elections.
Zuckerberg says that Facebook will use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to go after fake accounts or look for "inauthentic activity" among networks and take them down. Facebook wants to identify all its advertisers and authenticate them (or as Recode calls them - purchasers).
We make it much harder for anyone to advertise in ways that they shouldn’t be. A lot of tools around ad transparency to make it so that anyone who is advertising especially around political issue ads, will have a lot of information, a very high standard of transparency. We are also going so far as verifying the identity and location of every advertiser.Mark Zuckerberg to Recode
On Weeding Out Fake News
On fake news Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook has a responsibility of keeping the community safe, but at the same time giving people a platform to express their opinions. He says Facebook’s approach to false news is not to remove accounts completely, but to check the information to see if they are hoaxes or blatant misinformation. Then these will be down-ranked in news feeds.
We look at the things that are getting the most distribution. If people have flagged them as potential hoaxes, we send those to fact-checkers who are well reputable and have followed standard principles for fact checking, and if those fact checkers say that it is provably false, then we will significantly reduce the distribution of that content.Mark Zuckerberg to Recode
What Facebook Really Is
Is Facebook a media outlet? A news organisation? A social media platform or just a social network. Zuckerberg had once called it a utility for people to build relationships. He clarified his stand on what Facebook is in the interview to Recode, calling it a social network and not social media.
In general, we’re a social network. I prefer that because I think it is focused on the people part of it — as opposed to some people call it social media, which I think focuses more on the content. For me, it’s always been about the people, and the reason why I called it a utility was because a lot of people used to think of it as a fad.Mark Zuckerberg to Recode
On Breaking Down Facebook
There have been calls by US regulators to break down companies that have gotten too large - as was the case with AT&T a few years ago. Similarly, the US senate had asked why companies like Facebook, which have become near monopolies in their space, should not be broken down. To this Zuckerberg says clipping the wings of companies like Facebook will give foreign companies, specifically Chinese companies an advantage. In short, it wouldn’t be good for business.
In the traditional sense, we’re not big because we’re so big in the United States, although we are and a lot of people use our products here. If we weren’t an international company, we actually would not be very profitable at all. We actually would probably be unprofitable.Mark Zuckerberg to Recode
You can catch the full interview with Mark Zuckerberg on Recode.
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