Business Editor
Prior to this week it had been eight years since Mark Zuckerbergâs last visit
to Ireland. Back then, Facebook was worth around â¬80 billion and had 650
million users.
Today, nearly four times that number around the world use the social network,
the company is valued at over â¬445 billion, Zuckerbergâs personal fortune
is estimated to be around â¬60 billion and he is one of the most powerful
business people on the planet.
So for all these reasons, and because of the general public fascination with
him, there was plenty of buzz when the 34-year-old stopped off in Dublin again
last Tuesday. <https://www.rte.ie/news/technology/2019/0402/1040107-facebook/>
He was on his way back from Germany, where he had gone to speak with
policymakers, academics, business leaders and the media.
Facebook characterised the Dublin stop as a listening and communication
exercise. A chance to meet some TDs, the firmâs nearly 5,000 staff here and
the media.
(It probably would have been an opportunity to meet both the Taoiseach and Data
Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon, except it turned out both were out of the
country on business.)
But others described it as nothing more than a cynical charm offensive, a PR
stunt.
Either way, the founder was clearly attempting once again to send out the
message that Facebook is sorry for the mistakes of the past and to outline how
it hopes things will be done differently from now on. And change is
undoubtedly necessary.
After all, the company has been convulsed by scandal after scandal in recent
years - from Cambridge Analytica to a string of big data breaches; and from
electoral interference and fake news, to a fundamental failure to keep its
users away from harm on the platform.
Last weekend, Mr Zuckerberg signaled how he sees the future for Facebook and
social media in an op-ed piece published in the Sunday Independent and a number
of international titles.
<https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0330/1039666-zuckerberg-facebook-government/>
He also fleshed that out in an exclusive one-to-one interview with RTÃ News on
Tuesday
In both, he called for a more active role for governments in regulation of
social media and the internet.
His point, essentially, is that it shouldnât be up to private companies to
define what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, what
privacy standards should be and how data can be moved around.
The Facebook boss is clear - governments should set those standards.
Companies like his should then find ways to meet them, should be transparent in
whether they or not achieve the goals, and presumably (although he doesnât
say it explicitly) should be subject to sanction if they donât.
This represents something of a volte face from Facebook - a firm that has
traditionally pushed back hard against government interference in its affairs,
instead relying on self-regulation.
So what is behind this road to Damascus conversion?
The most benign interpretation would be that Zuckerberg realises that he was
wrong.
Perhaps now that he is older, wiser and more mature than that Zuck who was
pictured strolling nonchalantly down Grafton Street eight years ago, he
realises he can no longer control the beast he inadvertently created as a teen
in a dorm in Harvard.
Maybe he now sees that after all the scandals involving his and other social
media and internet companies, regulation is inevitable.
And possibly he sees that he should now embrace the change, encourage it and in
the process end up on the right side when the history of the development of
social media is written in 30 yearsâ time.
A less benign possibility also starts with Zuckerberg realising that regulation
is going to happen, one way or another.
However, this view assumes that he and his team of advisors think that by
getting out first, appearing to embrace the change, they may be able to temper
and soften that regulation and shape it as it comes into being.
It was interesting, in that context, to note that Nick Clegg, the former
Lib-Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister in the UK, who was appointed
Facebookâs Head of Global Affairs back in October, was by his bossâ side
during his visit to Dublin.
A seasoned politician, Mr Clegg presumably has a good sense of how best to
handle this kind of politically charged debate and change.
The third possible view is that Facebook doesn't want any regulation, but is
trying nonetheless to give the public and policy-makers a positive impression
that it is open to it, via a charm offensive and PR campaign - an option that
looks the least likely at this point in time.
Whatever the correct answer, there is little doubt that there is much at stake
for Zuckerberg and his company, which is very much at a crossroads in its
development.
Privacy regulators in most territories are breathing down its neck on multiple
fronts.
Here, the Data Protection Commission has 15 statutory investigations under way
at the moment, ten of which relate to Facebook, or its other platforms,
Instagram and WhatsApp.
Mark Zuckerberg says he wants a more standardised data privacy regime across
the world along the lines of the General Data Protection Regulation that
recently came into force here.
But with that would come considerably more pressure on the company to move away
from its old way of doing things, to a more privacy by design approach.
The company is also potentially facing anti-trust or competition challenges too.
Its proposal to merge its three messaging services into one common back-end
platform has been met with concerned looks and skepticism in many quarters.
The EU, through Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, is increasingly
coming down hard on big tech firms with massive fines and other remedies.
In the US, the talk now is of whether regulators should be considering going a
step further by breaking up some of these firms in order to end their dominance.
When it comes to stopping election interference, Facebook has also clearly run
out of road.
It has taken a large number of steps to prevent a repeat of the 2016 US
Presidential Election where foreign actors manipulated the platform to try to
influence the outcome.
Any more incidents like that though, where democracy is possibly undermined in
any jurisdiction by misuse of Facebook user data, would be hugely, hugely
damaging.
Clearly, based on what Mr Zuckerberg told me during our interview on Tuesday,
he believes the social network is making progress in stopping such bad actors,
but canât guarantee it can completely stop them.
And then there is the massive issue of safety on the platform, particularly
where children are concerned.
The latest high-profile incident where Facebook was misused with devastating
consequences in this way was the recent mass shooting in New Zealand, during
which the gunman streamed his killing spree live on the social network.
It may have been an extreme case, but nearly every day there is some sort of
controversy in the news about harmful material on a Facebook platform having a
negative impact on users, especially children.
From hate speech to self-harm imagery, and cyber-bullying to violent extremism,
it is a considerable problem.
In the medium to long-term, if the company doesnât sort these issues out, it
could see not only users, but also advertisers, vote with their feet and leave.
It may also lead to personal pressure on Mr Zuckerberg to take a step back from
running the company he founded and has led since day one, in order to let
someone else try a different approach.
The challenges are, therefore, serious and many for Facebook and its leader
right now.
So does Mark Zuckerberg really intend to change its direction to safeguard its
future and continue its growth?
It is too early to say for sure. Actions will tell a lot.
Having spent some time with and around him last Tuesday, what is clear is that
he is very clever, has thought deeply about the issues it faces and still
appears to have a strong enough passion for his invention to want to put it
right.
The big question now is, can he and will he?
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account, subscribe or unsubscribe:
//www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/fb-exchange ;
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
