With the New Zealand government threatening that social media executives could be jailed and their companies fined billions of dollars if they fail to remove terrorist material in the wake of the Christchurch mosque massacres (abc.net.au):
Mark Zuckerberg calls for stronger regulation of internet (theguardian.com).
But rather than admitting his platform was at fault, in a way passing the buck back to those with bureaucratic red tape to tie themselves up in an op-ed published online in The Washington Post and on his own Facebook page:
The firm’s founder and chief executive said there was a need for governments and regulators to have “a more active role”.
Zuckerberg said he believed new regulation was needed in four areas—harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.
Laying out that on Facebook “every day we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising” but that it’s too much to ask for companies to shoulder the all the burden them self:
“These are important for keeping our community safe. But if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn’t ask companies to make these judgments alone.”
Leaving a “more active role for governments and regulators” for “updating the rules for the internet” whist preserving “what’s best about it”. But while also promising tighter checks—in the EU at least—on advertising relating to politics, not especially interfering with the platforms ad revenue business model which may have been the regulatory case had he not designated those governments and regulators the Sisyphean task of identifying and codifying exactly what is and is not harmful.
Updated 3rd April 2019
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg wants internet regulation … as long as he can shape it (cnet.com).
“I’m glad to see that Mr. Zuckerberg is finally acknowledging what I've been saying for [the] past two years: the era of the social media Wild West is over,” said Sen. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, in a statement.
And then like a hound with what he’s chased so long but never quite managed to catch sat there with panting tongue and wagging tail but not a fucking clue what to do.
Recent/related stories
- Home Secretary Sajid Javid warns social media platforms over New Zealand mosques massacre footage (Blog 16th March 2019)
- Tim Berners-Lee calls to ‘Stop web’s downward plunge to dysfunctional future’ (Latest Picks 12th March 2019)
- Facebook’s use of two-factor authentication for advertising puts security and privacy at odds (Latest Picks 6th March 2019)
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