Mark Zuckerberg’s Promises To Fix Facebook In 2018

Facebook CEO vows to do the job he already has, but better…

That in a nutshell is Mark Zuckerberg’s New Year Resolution, but it will be interesting to see if he comes through by the time 2019 roll around.

In previous new year mission statements, he’s vowed to learn Mandarin and build AI control systems for his home. This year though he has instead decided to turn his attention to the day job. Unlike the vast majority of people who make New Year Resolutions however, Zuckerberg is likely to make good on his promise.

Zuckerberg admitted in a post on his page on the social network, that Facebook makes “too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools…If we’re successful this year”, he said, “we’ll end 2018 on a much better trajectory”.

This statement from the same man who, one year, also promised to wear a tie every day…

While criticism of content on Facebook has been growing for years, since the election of the current US President in 2016, Facebook (along with most other tech firms admittedly) has found itself under current fire, in terms of its inability to police content, allowing the proliferation of fake news, and discounting its influence on society as a whole.

‘Crazy’ that social media gGiant has political influence  

Mark Zuckerberg promises to do the job everyone else thought he was already doing

Zuckerberg himself had once described the idea that Facebook somehow influencing political affairs was “crazy”, but he has changed his tune in recent months. Facebook, alongside other social media giants have begun to take more responsibility for certain problems.

Facebook in particular has been criticized for allowing Russia-linked political ads in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential vote.

Recent investigations and ensuing criticism by the EU and national governments such as the UK, France and Germany, have no doubt influenced Zuckerberg’s sudden desire to ‘fix’ Facebook.

“The world feels anxious and divided,” said Zuckerberg, “”and Facebook has a lot of work to do — whether it’s protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent….My personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues.”

Zuckerberg went on to say that while technology had the promise of putting more power into people’s hands, many had lost faith in that promise. However, he also added that encryption and digital currency could have the power to counter this trend, and said Facebook was going to look at how best to utilize that new power for the greater good.

“This will be a serious year of self-improvement and I’m looking forward to learning from working to fix our issues together,” he concluded.

Time will tell.