Thu. Mar 28th, 2024
Mark Zuckerberg

Facebook has hinted at some openness at regulations and it is making things clearer this weekend. Mark Zuckerberg has posted an editorial in which he has presented four ideas to regulate the internet, including approaches that could be adopted worldwide.

The first idea that got featured in Zuckerberg’s editorial requires governments to set “baselines” for online content and filter content to minimize the chances of unprecedented content on the platform. Facebook should refrain from making so many decisions about the speech by itself, said Zuckerberg, adding a plan to launch an independent moderation committee to match.

Zuckerberg also detailed the regulations that set “common standards” for verifying people behind political ads. He suggested an idea of a firm akin to EU’s GDPR in order to improve overall data privacy without leading to “fractured” internet. Additionally, Zuckerberg expressed his hopes for a guarantee of data portability between services, pointing to the Data Transfer Project as an example. The moderator or regulator safeguarding the information between services should be clear, added Facebook CEO.

The statement comes at a crucial time as Zuckerberg outlined a shift towards privacy recently, nevertheless, it could be a counter to existing calls to regulate Facebook. This step from Zuckerberg will help Facebook reframe the discussion indicating that it is willing to accept.

Nevertheless, there is also a matter of effectiveness as Facebook can show what it wants but to get even a few countries to cooperate would be a difficult task. The proposals are also quite vague in nature, and could only serve as basic starting point. There is still a chance that governments will be disagreeing on the final details.

Meanwhile, Facebook has launched two new India-specific tools to boost civic engagement on its platform — Candidate Connect and Share You Voted.

The first feature named ‘Candidate Connect’ will help users to learn more about the candidates, while the second ‘Share You Voted’ tool is introduced for users to share polling information and enable people to celebrate and announce their vote.

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