6 Things to Know About Mark Zuckerberg's Manifesto
Mark Zuckerberg has a lot to say.
On Thursday, Facebook (ticker: FB) founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a 5,700-word treatise on what he sees as a new level of globalization in today's world, made possible by social media networks like Facebook, which now boasts nearly 2 billion members. Zuckerberg grandly states that we're nearing the next step-change in human history; where in the beginning we were organized by tribes, then cities and then nations, now we are ultimately becoming a global community. Zuckerberg's manifesto, as it's being called, outlines the outsized role he sees Facebook playing in this global community. Here are six things from Zuckerberg's post you need to know.
Facebook is becoming an activist.
The Zuckerberg manifesto is remarkable because it outlines what Facebook's founder sees as his company's inherent responsibility in shaping how this new global community evolves. No longer is Facebook's role to simply connect people. "For the past decade, Facebook has focused on connecting friends and families," Zuckerberg writes, going on to outline five key responsibilities he believes FB now has. "With that foundation, our next focus will be developing the social infrastructure for community -- for supporting us, for keeping us safe, for informing us, for civic engagement, and for inclusion of all."
Supportive communities.
Facebook wants to build infrastructure that will help people connect to local communities and groups that help people in a truly altruistic way. Zuckerberg gives an example: "In Berlin, a man named Monis Bukhari runs a group where he personally helps refugees find homes and jobs. Today, Facebook's tools for group admins are relatively simple. We plan to build more tools to empower community leaders like Monis to run and grow their groups the way they'd like, similar to what we've done with Pages." Going forward, Facebook will increasingly help people connect to organizations like "churches, sports teams, unions or other local groups."
AI -- making the world safe again?
Facebook has already made remarkable strides in making communities safer, allowing people in areas stricken by sudden natural catastrophes or terror attacks to let their family and friends know they're safe, as well as blasting Amber Alerts that have resulted in the safe return of missing children. Going forward, Zuckerberg sees artificial intelligence playing a crucial role in scaling these sort of systems, which he ultimately hopes will not only be reactive, but preventative. Examples include AI tipping Facebook off to examples of online bullying, the spread of terrorist propaganda and Facebook Live Videos where people may be planning to hurt themselves or others.
Informed communities -- combating fake news.
"How do we help people build an informed community that exposes us to new ideas and builds common understanding in a world where every person has a voice?" Zuckerberg asks. This was a big issue in the 2016 election with the rampant spread of fake news on social media, and it's also a question Twitter (TWTR) has dealt with in its efforts to reduce cyberbullying while not encroaching on free speech. Facebook is putting new fact-checking efforts in place that will alert readers if a story has been deemed inaccurate by third-party fact-checkers, without outright banning the ability to share such information.
Civically-engaged communities.
Arguably the most radical part of the Zuckerberg manifesto is its vow to build a more civically engaged global community. It peeves Zuckerberg that less than half of Americans vote in national elections, and Facebook wants to keep driving voter registration and voting efforts. But the social media giant doesn't want to do this just in the U.S. alone. Facebook wants to establish "a new process for citizens worldwide to participate in collective decision-making." An effort to literally mobilize people around the globe to stand up for their beliefs and actively participate in getting the representation they deserve is ambitious and unprecedented.
Inclusive communities -- can AI help here, too?
One complication with Facebook's success in building a global community is anthropological: Different societies have different cultural norms. At the same time, Facebook should feel inclusive for everyone. Facebook's new role as an editor responsible for the censorship of offensive content has become quite difficult. "Major advances in AI are required to understand text, photos and videos to judge whether they contain hate speech, graphic violence, sexually explicit content and more. At our current pace of research, we hope to begin handling some of these cases in 2017, but others will not be possible for many years," Zuckerberg writes.
More From US News & World Report
