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Tuesday, February 11, 2025
HomeWorldEuropeMark Zuckerberg urges tighter regulation on harmful contents

Mark Zuckerberg urges tighter regulation on harmful contents

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Daily US Times, Munich: Mark Zuckerberg says it is not up to the companies like his to decide what counts as legitimate free speech as the Facebook boss has called for more regulation of harmful online content.

Zuckerberg gave the example of China while warning excessive control risked stifling individual expression.

He attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Facebook and other giants social media platforms are under pressure to stop the spread of false information. Facebook was especially been criticized for its policy on political advertising.

Facebook launched new policies for political advertising in the US in 2018 and globally the following year while the rules require political ads to display who had paid for them, and a copy of the ad is kept in a publicly-searchable database for seven years.

But this week, the company said it would not include sponsored political posts by social media stars in its database. Mark Zuckerberg previously defended the policy that politicians are not always fact-checked as part of the company’s free speech policy.

He said at the conference, “We don’t want private companies making so many decisions about how to balance social equities without any more democratic process.”

The founder of Facebook urged governments to come up with a new regulatory system for social media. He suggested the system should be a mix of existing rules for telecoms and media companies.

Before the regulatory system takes place, Zuckerberg said his company will continue doing it’s best.

“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.”

But Zuckerberg recognized that his company had been slow to recognize the development of co-ordinated online “information campaigns” by state actors like Russia.

While staying in Europe, Zuckerberg is expected to meet politicians in Munich and Brussels to discuss data practices, regulations, and tax reform.

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