Zuckerberg Pitches How Facebook Should Be Regulated Over Content
February 15 2020 - 2:58PM
Dow Jones News
By James Marson
MUNICH -- Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the
social-media giant falls somewhere between a newspaper and a
telecommunications company, in terms of responsibility for content,
and should be regulated as such.
Mr. Zuckerberg, speaking in front of government and security
officials at an annual security conference here, rejected
comparisons between tech giants like his and traditional news-media
outlets, which are routinely held accountable for their content. He
said that responsibility devolves from having editors at those
outlets heavily involved in choosing and editing content.
A different comparison, he said, would be telecommunications
companies, which aren't generally held responsible for the content
-- like voice communications and data -- that pass through their
networks each day. "You're not going to hold a telco responsible
for something harmful that's said on a phone line," he said.
"I actually think where we should be is somewhere in between,"
he said. He didn't describe specifically what sort of system he
thought would work, or what he would be willing to support.
Big technology companies -- under assault by regulators on both
sides of the Atlantic -- have moved to seize the initiative in the
debate over what sort of framework can best protect users when it
comes to potentially harmful internet content, while also avoid
infringing on free expression.
His comments come ahead of a visit by Mr. Zuckerberg next week
to Brussels, where he is expected to discuss with European Union
officials a variety of regulatory issues. Earlier this week,
Facebook released excerpts from a speech Mr. Zuckerberg is expected
to make on Sunday acknowledging that Facebook is ready to pay
higher taxes in Europe.
Mr. Zuckerberg, in comments last March, said he believed tech
companies needed more regulation -- and has since outlined four
broad areas over which he would welcome government oversight:
elections and political discourse; content moderation; privacy; and
data portability.
Other tech giants have stepped up calls for regulation, too. In
January, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google parent Alphabet
Inc., called for "sensible regulation" from the EU over artificial
intelligence. Airbnb Inc. called for the EU to take charge of a
regional system for registering hosts that use its home-sharing
website.
Mr. Zuckerberg said Saturday he was eager for governments to
take the lead in terms of regulation, and that companies like his
have the obligation, meanwhile, to build the "operational muscle to
be able to proactively enforce whatever the policies and
regulations are."
Write to James Marson at james.marson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 15, 2020 14:43 ET (19:43 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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