Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg approached Saturday for regulators to play an “more active role” in establishing rules that govern the internet, as the world’s biggest social media networking system battles to defuse criticism.
Zuckerberg, whose company is feeling the squeeze for neglecting to sufficiently police content and ensure user privacy on its platform, wrote in a Washington Post article that an “standardized approach” for removing content would help keep internet companies “accountable.”
“By updating the rules for the Internet, we can preserve what’s best about it – the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things – while also protecting society from broader harms,” Zuckerberg wrote.
His remarks pursued a Washington Post report saying the U.S. government and Facebook were negotiating a multibillion-dollar fine settlement over the company’s privacy slips.
Zuckerberg likewise called for updated legislation concentrated on securing elections, including new standards went for online political advertising that “reflect the reality of the threats” faced by social media companies.
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies say Russian internet trolls helped spread divisive content and disinformation on Facebook in the run-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
