We have learned our lesson, “said Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, referring to the risk of political interference in the run-up to the US election, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.
Mr. Zuckerberg even appeared open to some degree of regulation, with a system “somewhere between the existing rules for telecommunications and those for the media” and stressed that certain conditions should be set for other social media. At the same time, he argued that Facebook has significantly improved the fight against phenomena such as online election interventions: “We have learned our lesson,” he said, looking at the 2016 election campaign when members of Donald Trump’s campaign used Facebook’s security vacuum. in order to identify undecided voters in the so-called “swing states” and to influence them with mudslinging against their opponent’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Mark Zuckerberg also stressed that his company is making a great effort to detect and deactivate fake accounts and in this context is suspending the operation of about one million accounts a day. It employs more than 35,000 people and most fake accounts are now realized within minutes of their creation. He even said that in 2016 alone, Facebook recognized a total of 50 misinformation campaigns, including an Iranian and a Russian attempt to interfere in the US and Ukrainian elections, respectively. “Our current budget is higher than the company’s total revenue when it entered the stock market in 2012,” he said, adding that he was “proud of the results”, but acknowledged that it should remain vigilant.
Mr. Zuckerberg, although he has received repeated questions, mainly regarding the algorithm and security of Facebook, which currently has about two billion users, is undoubtedly the “star” of the Conference, according to the German media. Most foreign leaders have asked to meet him, according to Der Spiegel magazine, while tickets for dinner in his honor were sold out immediately. However, it is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
Source RES-EIA
