Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said harmful online content should be regulated, adding that his company should be treated with a framework in between those used for existing media and telecoms companies.
‘I do think that there should be regulation on harmful content … there’s a question about which framework you use for this,’ Zuckerberg said on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
‘Right now there are two frameworks that I think people have for existing industries – there’s like newspapers and existing media, and then there’s the telco-type model, which is ‘the data just flows through you’, but you’re not going to hold a telco responsible if someone says something harmful on a phone line.’
‘I actually think where we should be is somewhere in between,’ he said.
Facebook and social media giants including Twitter and Alphabet’s Google have come under increasing pressure to better combat governments and political groups using their platforms to spread false and misleading information.
Zuckerberg said he now employed 35,000 people to review online content and implement security measures.
Those teams and Facebook’s automated technology currently suspend more than 1 million fake accounts each day, he said, adding that ‘the vast majority are detected within minutes of signing up.’
‘Our budget is bigger today than the whole revenue of the company when we went public in 2012, when we had a billion users,’ he said.
‘I’m proud of the results but we will definitely have to stay vigilant.’
Zuckerberg also threw his support behind international reforms that would require Silicon Valley tech giants to pay more tax in Europe.
Zuckerberg said at the conference that he’s backing plans for digital tax reform on a global scale proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
According to an excerpt of his speech provided in advance, Zuckerberg said, ‘I understand that there´s frustration about how tech companies are taxed in Europe.’
Zuckerberg will tell the conference that he’s glad that that the OECD is looking at tax reform, which Facebook also wants.
‘And we accept that may mean we have to pay more tax and pay it in different places under a new framework.’
What a great idea, mark. The government should decide what we’re allowed to say, and that whole first amendment stuff is just silly.
It’ll be a glorious day when we get to watch this a-hole’s head roll down the street.