WPP CEO Says Facebook, Google Must Take Responsibility for Fake News
November 21 2016 - 02:23PM
Dow Jones News
By Simon Zekaria
LONDON--Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP PLC (WPPGY),
Monday said Facebook Inc. (FB) and Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOGL) Google
Inc. must take responsibility for fake news appearing on their
platforms, as the British advertising agency added its voice to
criticism of the U.S. giants over the issue.
Speaking at a business conference in London, Mr. Sorrell said
Facebook and Google should be classified as "media companies,"
rather than technology companies, which means they are "responsible
for the content that flows through the pipes" of their
platforms.
"They are now understanding that they are now responsible. You
can't just wash your hands of it," he said.
WPP spends billions of dollars of its client's resources on
advertising deals with Google and Facebook.
Last week, Mark Zuckerberg outlined several steps Facebook is
testing to fight misinformation, an acknowledgment that the social
network could be doing more to avoid its proliferation.
Previously, Mr. Zuckerberg defended Facebook against claims that
fake news on the site distorted public discourse about the U.S.
presidential election.
He has also played down the prevalence of fake news on the
site--accounting for less than 1% of global content--and said that
Facebook's role isn't to be "arbiters of truth."
Mr. Zuckerberg has reiterated that misinformation is a small
part of Facebook content, but that it takes this problem
seriously.
Google has also announced steps to prevent fake-news websites
from generating revenue through their ad-selling services, signs
that technology companies are moving to address a growing
controversy about misinformation on the internet.
Write to Simon Zekaria at simon.zekaria@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 21, 2016 14:08 ET (19:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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