Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg says his social media platform must accept some degree of government regulation. This news comes amid suspicion that information is too easily manipulated on Facebook, and fake news can be easily spread. The end result is that even national elections can be interfered with by foreign powers using Facebook. Zuckerberg has acknowledged that Facebook has become more than just a social network, and now is more of a content provider, since over 1 billion pieces of fresh content are produced every single day on Facebook.
The company has come under heavy scrutiny the past few years, as it came to light that political consulting company Cambridge Analytica used Facebook to steer elections in both the USA and the UK. They did this by collecting the data of millions of Facebook users without their permission, and used it this data for targeted political advertising purposes. Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook had been too slow to accept just how big a problem this social media manipulation was. He now says that he supports state regulation on Facebook when it comes to elections, political discussion, privacy and data security. “We don’t want private companies making so many decision-balancing social equities without democratic process.” Zuckerberg ensured that Facebook is now spending billions of dollars on security and content regulation, and that over a million fake or dangerous accounts have been removed.
