By Bowdeya Tweh and Dave Sebastian
Mark Zuckerberg this week reiterated his view that Facebook
Inc.'s mission is to bring people together. But a Thursday speech,
in which he positioned the social-media platform as a bastion of
free speech, fueled more disagreement over how the tech giant
handles content and influences public discourse.
The Facebook chief executive invoked Martin Luther King Jr. and
abolitionist Frederick Douglass in a roughly 37-minute speech at
Georgetown University, casting his company's efforts to foster free
and inclusive expression as a digital-age extension of the ideals
behind the First Amendment and the U.S. civil-rights movement.
That message resonated with some, particularly on the right,
with some supporting citing free speech in support of Mr.
Zuckerberg. But others, including some on the left, accused the
company of allowing false and misleading information that distorts
public discourse, and of having fluid rules around the types of
speech that are permissible.
"I'd like to help Facebook better understand the challenges #MLK
faced from disinformation campaigns launched by politicians,"
Bernice King, one of Dr. King's daughters and CEO of the King
Center in Atlanta, said on Twitter. "These campaigns created an
atmosphere for his assassination." Ms. King couldn't be immediately
reached for additional comment Friday.
The speech, which was live streamed on Mr. Zuckerberg's Facebook
page, was viewed more than 1.1 million times as of Friday,
generating more than 62,000 comments. A transcript of the speech,
published on Facebook, resulted in thousands more comments.
Some conservatives found the speech reassuring. "We shouldn't
expect Facebook to be perfect," said Roslyn Layton, a visiting
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "What we should watch
is how well they respond when there is a problem or a challenge. I
think he's stepping up."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, (R., Calif.), said the
values Mr. Zuckerberg discussed Thursday are "uniquely and
inherently American values" that Congress should fight to protect.
"Yesterday was a heartening reminder that free expression still is
the best business model in the world," he said in a Friday
statement.
Mr. Zuckerberg's talk was delivered as Facebook is facing
antitrust scrutiny on multiple fronts and fresh criticism over its
handling of misinformation. The presidential campaign of Sen.
Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat who has called for the breakup of
Facebook and other big technology companies, paid for an
advertisement containing a false claim about Mr. Zuckerberg,
seeking to turn attention to the company's policies.
Democrats had previously called on Facebook to remove an ad from
President Trump's re-election campaign that made an unsubstantiated
claim against former Vice President Joe Biden.
Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a
left-leaning media watchdog group, said Facebook should require
political ads to disclose the source of its claims, and that it is
possible for the company to do so without raising strong concerns
about censorship. .
"It's a little less of a free speech thing and more of a
question of 'Is it fair to use those airways to use that platform
to directly distribute lies to people?'" Mr. Carusone said. "I
don't expect Facebook to be fact-checkers. What I expect them to do
is to do some very basic substantiation requirements."
Mr. Zuckerberg said Thursday the company doesn't fact-check
political ads and isn't planning on banning them from the platform.
But he said Facebook has sharpened its policies to make such ads
more transparent.
"We're at a crossroads now," said Mr. Zuckerberg, referencing
politically motivated efforts to restrict speech, in an interview
with Fox News host Dana Perino that was aired Friday. "We always
look back and regret it when we pull back on free expression."
At the same time, the 35-year-old executive pushed back on
politicians' calls to break up the company in the Friday interview,
faulting governments for not moving faster to set rules regarding
harmful content and efforts to manipulate elections.
Mr. Zuckerberg said in his Thursday speech that many
institutions are needed to police content online, pointing to
efforts like the independent panel being established to oversee and
adjudicate content-moderation decisions made at Facebook.
Determining an ad's veracity could prove challenging for
companies, but a company as large as Facebook has responsibilities
beyond the hands-off approach Mr. Zuckerberg discussed, said
Michael Delli Carpini, a professor who studies political
communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
"That is a slippery slope here," he said. "One person's
inaccuracy is another person's speculation. What is and is not true
is not easily determined a lot of times."
Concerns about false information in ads could erode users' trust
in the Facebook platform overall, said Andrew Rojecki, a University
of Illinois at Chicago professor who studies political
communication.
Facebook's CEO held out China's heavily censored social-media
outlets as a contrast to the free discussion on Facebook. "Is that
the internet we want?" he said.
Facebook, which the Chinese government for years has barred its
people from accessing, has long sought entry to that market. Mr.
Zuckerberg said censorship is one reason Facebook's services aren't
available in one of the world's most populous countries.
Sen. Josh Hawley, (R., Mo.), posted tweets Thursday critical of
the speech, citing prior interest in complying with Chinese
government requirements. "Interesting way to advocate free speech,"
he tweeted. His office couldn't immediately be reached for comment
Friday.
--Ryan Tracy and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this article.
Write to Bowdeya Tweh at Bowdeya.Tweh@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 18, 2019 17:22 ET (21:22 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024