Zuckerberg Lays Out Broad Vision for Facebook in 6,000-Word Mission Statement
The chief executive says Facebook should become a ‘social infrastructure’ for users
“Today’s threats are increasingly global, but the infrastructure to protect us is not,” Mr. Zuckerberg wrote. “Humanity’s current systems are insufficient to address these issues.”
.. Facebook, which faced criticism for, among other things, the design of its news feed, which put legitimate news sites on equal footing with those peddling misinformation during the U.S. presidential campaign. The company also drew fire for failing to catch violent live videos and for inconsistently applying its content standards, such as when it deleted posts containing a famous Vietnam War photo of a naked girl fleeing napalm bombs last fall. After considerable public uproar, Facebook reversed that decision.
.. This didn’t go over well with many employees who argued that the social network should be doing more to confront fake news as well as the “filter bubble” in which many users see few ideas or information different from their own, current and former employees said at the time.
.. Thursday, Mr. Zuckerberg said fake news and filter bubbles worried him, but a greater concern is “polarization.”
.. Facebook wants to show users a wider range of perspectives and demote sensationalized news, but has to be careful to do so without deepening divisions, Mr. Zuckerberg wrote, citing research showing that people hold tighter to their beliefs when confronted with an opposing view. “Our goal must be to help people see a more complete picture, not just alternate perspectives,” he wrote.
.. Longer term, Mr. Zuckerberg wants to build artificial intelligence that can detect violent content and terror-recruiting networks. Some of that work can be done now, he said, but major advances are still needed to build effective systems that can catch hate speech, graphic violence or sex.