Facebook proposes ‘Rules for the Internet’ as it calls for more regulation for itself.
Facebook is confident that the Internet should be more strictly regulated, therefore, it is necessary to introduce rules for content on the Internet
Among other social networks, the industry giant has recently received a lot of criticism because of the content that can often be found on its pages.
Various extremist advertising posts, a lot of false information and political propaganda of various kinds are distributed almost without restriction through popular social platforms around the world. This has been criticized by experts and politicians from different countries who insist that companies should make efforts to limit such content.
Government Regulators Should Create Rules
In turn, the founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said that government regulators should create rules that would help solve problems with such political content.
Representatives of governments of various countries around the world suggest increasing the responsibility of social media companies for the content that they allow anyone to post on their resources. However, many believe that the introduction of more stringent regulatory measures will benefit the largest Internet companies, since they will have more opportunities to meet the requirements and comply with the rules, unlike smaller companies. This state of affairs, in turn, will cause an even greater skew in business development opportunities.
Ofcom that was recently assigned as the broadcast regulator, with the ability to hold companies accountable if the regulator’s requirements for protecting users from fake content are not respected. This appointment was accompanied by new official publications from the British government that highlighted proposed regulatory measures for the industry.
Facebook, in turn, released its version of the rules governing the liability of Internet companies for posting content that could harm users. The leadership of the Internet giant explains its actions by the fact that they care about users, and the proposed recommendations should encourage enterprises to a more responsible approach to doing business. However, many suggest that this is primarily due to the ambitions of the founder of Facebook, since the creation of regulatory rules together with the government can put the company in a position out of competition.
Chief public communications spokesman of the social media titan, Nick Clegg, announced the intentions of working together with Internet policymakers. At the same time, he added that they developed five basic rules for the moderation of content posted on social media platforms. These rules, which should protect users was combined in the White Paper.
The White Paper also states that these five rules for regulating Internet content should ensure freedom of speech and opinion, as well as the interaction of regulators from different countries, since the Internet is an almost border less global phenomenon.
Also, the proposed statute on Internet regulation focuses the attention of regulators on the fact that it is not necessary to prohibit any specific technological tools, but rather strive to understand new technologies so that high tech enterprises have the possibility to develop and improve the service provided to users.
According to Mark Zuckerberg in an interview published recently in the Financial Times, Facebook is ready to even suffer possible damage caused by the new rules, because it understands the seriousness of the problem of harmful content, so the company is ready to provide the maximum necessary support for regulation in the field of Internet content. At the same time, the CEO of the Internet giant believes that the likelihood of financial damage with the introduction of stricter regulation of the placement of content is very high in the short term. On the other hand, in his opinion, over a long period, on the contrary, it should be of great benefit to all industry participants.
Facebook Stands for a Clean Internet
For the Internet to remain the same powerful development tool in all directions for mankind, which it was until now, its legal regulation should be based on clear and transparent rules that could ensure technological and social innovations, as well as protect people from harmful effects.
Zuckerberg also noted that standards in legislation must necessarily exist so that users can trust technologies, companies and the Internet business as a whole. In this regard, the company independently advances in matters of industry regulation, waiting for politicians or someone else to do it for them.
Incorrect development of rules for regulating the placement of content on the Internet can have the opposite effect from the expected and lead to negative consequences for the industry and humanity as a whole, slowing down its development in all fields and reducing the level of security on the Internet.
That is why the development of rules governing the distribution of content should occur in a coordinated manner with the participation of all interested parties, namely society, governments and, of course, technology companies. In general, Facebook wants to initiate discussions on the regulation of the Internet, so the corporation is going to continue to release various information on this subject before the end of the year for discussion and thought.
Source www.ft.com
