How Zuckerberg thinks Facebook should be regulated: A brief guide
Government regulation is coming for Facebook -- and Mark Zuckerberg has some ideas about how it should all go down.
Over the weekend, the Facebook CEO published an op-ed in the Washington Post outlining the kinds of regulation he thinks Facebook and other tech giants should face, likely with the hope it could guide lawmakers who are calling for new rules.
What he's proposing
Zuck's suggestions, which aren't all that different from what Facebook execs have been saying over the last year, focus on four areas: harmful content, election security, privacy, and data portability.
For harmful content, the CEO says there should be a set of rules that govern what types of content companies like Facebook should consider harmful.
"Internet companies should be accountable for enforcing standards on harmful content," he writes. "Regulation could set baselines for what’s prohibited and require companies to build systems for keeping harmful content to a bare minimum."
On the elections side, Zuckerberg argues that other companies should adopt Facebook's approach of making a searchable political ad archive. He also advocates for transparency around political advertisements.
"Deciding whether an ad is political isn’t always straightforward. Our systems would be more effective if regulation created common standards for verifying political actors," Zuckerberg says.
For privacy, Zuckerberg endorses the European Union's GDPR rules and says that the United States and other countries should adopt similar protections.
Lastly, he says, "regulation should guarantee the principle of data portability," meaning that people should be able to freely move their data between different services.
"True data portability should look more like the way people use our platform to sign into an app than the existing ways you can download an archive of your information," Zuckerberg writes.
Why this, why now?
Looming in the background is the reality of multiple government investigations into Facebook. The Washington Postpreviously reported the company will be slapped with a multibillion-dollar FTC fine over its handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The social network is also dealing with a criminal investigation into its data sharing partnerships, overseen by the Eastern District of New York. Facebook, which has defended the deals, has confirmed it's cooperating with the Justice Department.
This week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) charged Facebook with housing discrimination, alleging that its advertising tools allowed companies to violate the Fair Housing Act.
These investigations will not only lead to many more negative news cycles for Facebook. They will likely trigger more scrutiny from lawmakers. By calling for specific types of new regulation now, Facebook will be able to say that it's actually pro-government regulation -- and can use its powerful lobbying arm to push for the specific rules it believes will be most beneficial.
How Zuckerberg's rules will help Facebook
It may seem obvious that Zuckerberg's proposal is self-interested, but it's important to remember that his ideas are, of course, designed to help Facebook.
By offloading decisions about harmful content, privacy rules, and elections onto third-parties, Facebook may not have to take as much of the heat when mistakes are made.
And by touting the social network's existing work around political advertising and content moderation, Facebook has an opportunity to determine the rules the rest of the industry will also have to abide by.
Finally, Zuckerberg's desire for "data portability" would also have the convenient side effect of making it much more difficult for regulators to argue that Facebook is a monopoly that should be broken up.
Featured Video For You
Women are still underrepresented in tech. Here’s what Facebook has to say about it.
-
“笋货”上市采购旺!清远西牛麻竹笋迎秋季尝鲜热“家乡需要我,我就要发挥人熟地熟的优势”The Kitschy Pleasure of the San Fernando ValleyBest Fire tablet deal: Get the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet for just $99.99 at AmazonFreedom from DissentNYT's The Mini crossword answers for April 17The new Jan. 6 testimony against Trump will be devastating at trial.A real Holodeck? Scientists recreate Star Trek technology with ChatGPTCicadas love to land on people. Experts explain why.How to sext
- ·Weather update for second Pak vs Ban second Test match day one
- ·Google Pixel 9 is rumored to steal this iPhone 14 and iPhone 15 feature
- ·Musk’s xAI reveals Grok 1.5 Vision, claims top spatial understanding
- ·This butterfly hybrid thrived against evolutionary odds
- ·Pope says England are not 'one
- ·Best sex toy deal: Spend $150 at Lovers, get $25 off
- ·Private physicians, med professors start reducing work hours
- ·A real Holodeck? Scientists recreate Star Trek technology with ChatGPT
- ·Yoon, US Senate's armed service committee chief discuss alliance, N.K. threats
- ·变更抚养关系起纷争 宝兴县法院温情调解呵护未成年人健康成长
- ·Humongous stellar
- ·Biden stresses 'enduring' US commitment to Korean Peninsula denuclearization to Xi: White House
- ·A Barbie flip phone is here from HMD
- ·Daddy long
- ·Iowa caucuses results: Why Donald Trump won here.
- ·Private physicians, med professors start reducing work hours
- ·SpaceX Polaris Dawn mission: How to watch the launch
- ·How to sext
- ·China threat rising? US
- ·青衣江水文测报第一站 雅安水文基础能力提升项目开工
- ·护航孩子成长 解决职工后顾之忧
- ·NASA craft snaps extraordinarily close images of volcano
- ·拼项目热火朝天 比攻坚决战百天
- ·Best Fire tablet deal: Get the Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro tablet for just $99.99 at Amazon
- ·热浪来袭 科学应对防中暑
- ·Norris beats Verstappen to go fastest in Australian practice
- ·The Best AMD Ryzen Gaming Laptops (So Far)
- ·Over 40 countries condemn Pyongyang
- ·Solar sail breakthrough: Future NASA spacecraft could be powered by Sun
- ·NYT's The Mini crossword answers for April 17
- ·雅安公安接连破获两起汉源湖非法捕捞案
- ·Skepticism clouds young voters ahead of general election
- ·NASA wants to measure moonquakes with laser
- ·The Kitschy Pleasure of the San Fernando Valley
- ·Eng name ODI, T20I squads for Aus series
- ·关爱受灾学子 做到应助尽助