Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called for more regulation surrounding online content, saying that it’s not up to social media companies to determine free speech.
BBC News reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned during the Munich Security Conference in Germany that excessive control of speech online risked stifling individual expression and free speech. Social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have been put under intense pressure to crack down on “hate speech” online, Facebook has also been harshly criticized for its refusal to fact check political ads.
Zuckerberg stated during the conference that he supported government regulation of speech online stating: “We don’t want private companies making so many decisions about how to balance social equities without any more democratic process.”
Zuckerberg urged governments to develop regulations relating to social media and suggested that a new regulatory system be founded that combined the existing rules for telecoms and media companies. “In the absence of that kind of regulation we will continue doing our best,” he said.
Zuckerberg continued: “But I actually think on a lot of these questions that are trying to balance different social equities it is not just about coming up with the right answer, it is about coming up with an answer that society thinks is legitimate.”
Zuckerberg stated that Facebook now has a team of 35,000 people reviewing content and security on the platform, he stated that with assistance from AI the social media site deletes more than one million fake Facebook accounts every day. “Our budget [for content review] is bigger today than the whole revenue of the company when we went public in 2012, when we had a billion users,” Zuckerberg said.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com