Facebook's Zuckerberg 'not stepping down'

Mark Zuckerberg acknowledges recent criticism of his company is 'fair', but remains defiant about the work Facebook is doing.

Mark Zuckerberg says he does not intend to stand down as Facebook chairman despite renewed criticism over the social network's business practices.

In an interview with CNN, the Facebook founder was asked if he would step down as chairman - a role he holds alongside that of chief executive - and said "that's not the plan", before adding: "I am currently not thinking that makes sense."

Facebook's senior management has come under renewed scrutiny after a New York Times report last week claimed the company had hired a PR firm to discredit critics of the social network by linking their funding to philanthropist George Soros, and that Facebook staff had been aware of malicious Russian activity on the site for longer than publicly stated.

It follows the Cambridge Analytica scandal earlier this year, and a high-profile data breach reported in September.

The Facebook boss said the company was keen to work with "governments, other companies and non-profits" to address issues linked with the site - such as misinformation and election interference - because it would not be able to fix these problems by itself.

Mr Zuckerberg also acknowledged recent criticism of the company was "fair", but was defiant about the work Facebook was doing.

"There are always going to be issues if you're serving a community of more than two billion people - there's going to be someone who is posting something that is problematic, that gets through the systems that we have in place, no matter how advanced the systems are," he said.

"I think, by and large, a lot of the criticism around the biggest issues has been fair, but I do think that if we're going to be real, there is this bigger picture as well, which is that we have a different world view than some of the folks who are covering this."

He said Facebook's use around politics remained important because it gave more people a voice, adding that with support from "governments, partnerships and with a ton of investment" the site could stay ahead of the "sophisticated threats" posed by nation states and other organisations looking to interfere in elections.


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2 min read
Published 22 November 2018 6:30am
Source: AAP


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