Zuckerberg Lays Out Broad Vision For Facebook In New Mission Statement

By Deepa Seetharaman

Facebook Inc., got its start as a social hub for college students. Thirteen years later, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is setting his eyes on becoming what he calls the "social infrastructure" for its nearly two billion users.

Mr. Zuckerberg detailed his ambitions Thursday in a nearly 6,000-word manifesto that said Facebook can build products that can fight misinformation, detect terrorist propaganda and help users find support in trying times. Facebook will also introduce tools to encourage its users to vote and discuss political issues, both nationally and globally.

"I hope we have the focus to take the long view and build the new social infrastructure to create the world we want for generations to come," Mr. Zuckerberg said.

The post comes after a trying year for Facebook, when it was criticized for allowing fake news, violent images and other objectionable content to proliferate on the platform. The company has also struggled to stamp out violence in new formats like live video.

Facebook is also revamping the way it handles objectionable content to give users the ability to set parameters on how much nudity, violence, profanity and graphic content they can tolerate, Mr. Zuckerberg said. For users who don't make content choices, their settings will default to the choices made by the majority of users in their region. This move comes after several high-profile flaps last year such as Facebook's decision to delete posts containing a famous Vietnam War photo of a girl fleeing napalm bombs. Facebook later reversed that decision.

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 16, 2017 16:27 ET (21:27 GMT)

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