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.
Here are the key takeaways from Zuckerberg's interview to Recode.
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).
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.
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.
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.
You can catch the full interview with Mark Zuckerberg on Recode.
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