Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned that 2020 is “going to be a very tough year” for the company following the announcements of the firm’s third-quarter financial results.
Business Insider reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is preparing for a rcky upcoming year, warning in a post that 2020 would be “very tough” for the firm. During a conference call with industry analysts, which was later transcribed in a Facebook post, Zuckerberg discussed Facebook’s principles and the challenges it will face in the future.
“I expect that this is going to be a very tough year,” Zuckerberg stated. “We try to do what we think is right, but we’re not going to get everything right. This is complex stuff, and anyone who says the answers are simple hasn’t thought long enough about all the nuances and downstream challenges.”
Zuckerberg stated that he believes that the decisions made by Facebook generally tend to work out in the long-term, stating: “I get that some people will disagree with our decisions. I get that some people will think our decisions may have a negative impact on things they really care about. But I don’t think anyone can say we’re not doing what we believe, or that we haven’t thought hard about these issues.”
Zuckerberg continued to say: “I could be wrong, but my experience running this company so far has been that if we do what we believe is right, even when it’s unpopular for years at a time — then eventually it has worked out best for our community and for our business too.”
Facebook has come under fire from a number of directions recently, even within the company itself. Breitbart News reported that in an open letter posted to Facebook’s internal network and signed by 250 employees at tech giant Facebook asks the firm to reverse its decision to exempt political candidates’ ads from the company’s fact-checking program.
In the letter, the employees state: “Free speech and paid speech are not the same thing,” and argue that exempting candidates’ ads from fact-checking “allows politicians to weaponize our platform by targeting people who believe that content posted by political figures is trustworthy.”
The signed letter representing 250 employees only accounts for less than 1 percent of Facebook’s 40,000-person staff but does put pressure publicly on Facebook to review its fact-checking policies. In response to the letter, a Facebook spokesperson stated:
Facebook’s culture is built on openness so we appreciate our employees voicing their thoughts on this important topic. We remain committed to not censoring political speech, and will continue exploring additional steps we can take to bring increased transparency to political ads.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also recently took issue with Zuckerberg and his comments relating to free speech. Dorsey stated during the Twitter News Summit in New York City that there was a “major gap and flaw” in Zuckerberg’s argument for free speech and called Zuckerberg’s comments about the creation of Facebook mad during his speech at Georgetown University “revisionist history.”
“We talk a lot about speech and expression and we don’t talk about reach enough, and we don’t talk about amplification. And reach and amplification was not represented in that speech,” Dorsey said, according to journalist Sarah Frier. Dorsey stated that Facebook’s algorithm boosts promoted posts on the platform so that people can essentially pay to reach a larger audience which he believes is a “major gap and flaw in the substance he as getting across.”
Zuckerberg stated during his Georgetown University speech that Facebook was created in response to the Iraq War, saying: “If more people had a voice to share their experiences, maybe things would have gone differently.” This is the first time that Zuckerberg has made this claim, previously it was said that Facebook was created as a tool to rank Harvard students’ attractiveness, this was even a major plot point of the film made about Facebook, the Social Network.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
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