Zuckerberg Says Facebook Didn't Harm Political Discourse

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday fought back against accusations that the social network harmed political discourse this year by allowing fake news to flourish on the platform.

"Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook—of which it's a very small amount of the content—influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea," Mr. Zuckerberg said at a conference in Half Moon Bay, Calif.

He also said the company exposed its 1.8 billion monthly users to various views, countering the criticism that Facebook has created a "filter bubble" of like-minded people. He said the content is out there—but users don't click on it.

Facebook and smaller rival Twitter Inc. were key paths to news for voters this year as they assessed the two presidential candidates, Republican Donald Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The surprise triumph of Mr. Trump has sparked considerable debate about the role of social media in shaping the race's often toxic and divisive rhetoric. Critics—who tend to be left-leaning—say the company needs to do more to ensure that fake news doesn't spread rapidly on across the social network, potentially misinforming voters.

Mr. Zuckerberg said that argument reflected a lack of empathy for why voters favored Mr. Trump over Mrs. Clinton. "Why would you think fake news would be on one side, but not on the other?" he said.

Internal research proved that Facebook's algorithm doesn't create a filter bubble, Mr. Zuckerberg said, and the site offers a wide range of information from a variety of perspectives.

"Right now the problem isn't that diverse information isn't there…but we haven't gotten people to engage with it in higher proportions," he said on stage.

Mr. Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook was still finding the right balance between protecting user safety and free speech. Last December, Mr. Zuckerberg and other top Facebook executives agreed to maintain Mr. Trump's posts on his Facebook page despite the fact that two posts calling for a ban on Muslims from entering the U.S. violated the site's rules for hate speech, The Wall Street Journal reported last month.

Asked about the decision on stage, Mr. Zuckerberg said the site is weighing "newsworthiness as a higher part of the community guidelines." He said the site had to be careful when removing posts published by the president-elect, who has nearly 15 million followers on Facebook. "That's mainstream political discourse and we need to be pretty careful," he said.

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2016 23:25 ET (04:25 GMT)

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