Mark Zuckerberg calls for global regulations in four areas: policing harmful content, election integrity, a GDPR-like privacy framework, and data portability
but some experts are questioning his motives Nick Gillespie / Hit & Run : Mark Zuckerberg: ‘I Believe We Need a More Active Role for Governments and Regulators’ David McCabe / Axios : Zuckerberg starts offense on Big Tech regulations Peter Kafka / Recode : Mark Zuckerberg wants you — and your government — to help him run Facebook Ryan Dubras / We Are Social UK : We Are Social's Monday Mashup #440 Charlie Wood / Business Insider : Facebook is going to start explaining why stuff shows up in your newsfeed Andrew Wyrich / The Daily Dot : Facebook says it doesn't think the government should break up Facebook David Meyer / Fortune : Mark Zuckerberg Has Made the Case Against a Fragmented Internet. Here's the Case for It. CBS San Francisco : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Calls For Outside Regulation Keumars Afifi-Sabet / IT PRO : ‘Worldwide GDPR’ part of Mark Zuckerberg's manifesto for tech regulation New York Times : DealBook Briefing: Aramco Makes More Money Than Apple and Alphabet Combined Wei Shi / Telecoms.com : Facebook calls on governments to help control content on the Internet Mark Wyciślik-Wilson / BetaNews : Mark Zuckerberg's calls for internet regulation are just an attempt to shift the blame from Facebook John Kennedy / Silicon Republic : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg calls for new rules to govern the internet Daniel Van Boom / CNET : Facebook finally explains how it organizes your news feed Christopher Baugh / iPhone in Canada Blog : Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Outlines Ideas for New Web Regulations in Op-Ed Stuart Dredge / Music Ally : Mark Zuckerberg calls for more regulation of the internet Amit Chowdhry / Forbes : Social Media Roundup: Twitter May Label Abuses, Zuckerberg Wants Regulation, Pinterest Adds To Board Karissa Bell / Mashable : How Zuckerberg thinks Facebook should be regulated: A brief guide Catherine McIntyre / The Logic : Facebook's new tools to block discriminatory ads will not apply outside the United States Spencer Kimball / NBC News : Zuckerberg backs stronger internet privacy and election laws Namerah Saud Fatmi / Neowin : Mark Zuckerberg calls for internet regulation, highlights four most important areas Tom McKay / Gizmodo : Mark Zuckerberg: OK, Fine, Regulate Facebook James Miller / TechSpot : Mark Zuckerberg asks governments to regulate tech firms Chance Miller / 9to5Mac : Mark Zuckerberg joins Tim Cook in calling for GDPR-like privacy regulation in the US Zack Budryk / The Hill : Facebook CEO calls for more regulation in wake of New Zealand mosque shootings Jon Fingas / Engadget : Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg proposes four ways to regulate the internet Mark Osborne / ABC News : Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg calls for more government regulations in op-ed Yoel Minkoff / Seeking Alpha : Too much power over speech? Facebook looks for remedies Tweets: Kevin Roose / @kevinroose : It's wild that publications will just print your corporate lobbying verbatim if you call it, like, “A Vision For a Better Internet.” Tama Leaver / @tamaleaver : So, after years of telling everyone that it'd stop innovation to regulate social media companies, Mark Zuckerberg now wants governments to regulate social media companies (and the Internet at large)?! http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Sahil Lavingia / @shl : We raised $10M in venture capital and could afford to comply with the new EU VAT and GDPR regulations. A lot of our competitors were bootstrapped and died. Meanwhile, we took a bunch of their users. Maybe don't listen to the big companies on this stuff. http://www.cnbc.com/... Kevin Bankston / @kevinbankston : Cool: support for data portability, transparency reports on content moderation.Shrug: support for privacy regulation on a model FB already follows.Not cool: support for more content regulation, more intermediary liability, & legally req'd filtering (!)http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Tim O'Reilly / @timoreilly : “I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators,” says Matk Zuckerberg. This is not a message you would have heard from Silicon valley even a few years ago. But government must improve its skills to get it right. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Dr. Robert Epstein / @drrepstein : I've just written an essay criticizing #Zuckerberg's new self-serving call for regulating the internet. It should be published in a few days. His proposal is in @washingtonpost (behind a firewall), and it's here for free: http://newsroom.fb.com/... Bill Fitzgerald / @funnymonkey : This is the privacy red herring. Privacy isn't about exerting control over how data is used. Privacy starts with exerting control over when data is collected, and by whom - and a right to not have data collected at all. Other rights flow from there. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... http://twitter.com/... Damian Collins / @damiancollins : Mark Zuckerberg now says he wants to discuss internet regulation with lawmakers around the world. He should start by finally accepting @commonscms invitation, or come to our international grand committee in Ottawa in May to which he's already been invited. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... @elinor_carmi : So I see Zuckerberg decided he has a lot of opinions about privacy & regulation lately. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... What he's trying to do is frame the discussion, and make the regulators work for his company. Missing from the op-ed: BREAKING HIS MONOPOLY (Facebook/Insta/WhatsApp) Michael Arrington / @arrington : When a large company calls for regulation, what they are really requesting are regulatory costs that serve as barriers to entry, protecting them from upstart competitors. It means nothing else. Ever. http://www.cnbc.com/... @thetylerhayes : 500IQ move by Zuck... Cynical take: this would shift future blame of failure away from FB and on to govt ("you set the wrong standards!") Optimistic take: FB honestly hates wandering in the dark and getting hate regardless if they turn left or right. The game needs rules http://twitter.com/... Lindsey Barrett / @lam_barrett : tl;dr, “we'll be nice! laws are great!please notice we're saying this and good god pass one that doesn't actually force us to modify our behavior in any meaningful way” (also transparency reports) http://newsroom.fb.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : mark Zuckerberg with another editorial in the Washington Post — the ed page Facebook uses to telegraph company thinking to lawmakersto get ahead of regulation, MZ sets the agendahttps://t.co/JLbV43JH1v http://twitter.com/... David Cicilline / @davidcicilline : Rule #5 should be that Mark Zuckerberg doesn't get to make the rules anymore. Facebook is under criminal and civil investigation. It has shown it cannot regulate itself. Does anyone even want his advice? http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Harry Siegel / @harrysiegel : First, fight regulation tooth and nail. Then embrace it, and try to pull up the ladder on your competitors. http://twitter.com/... Greg Greene / @ggreeneva : This op-ed appears to run 600 words or so long, but one can boil it down to just five: Please don't break us up. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... Dare Obasanjo / @carnage4life : Some thoughts on Mark Zuckerberg's op-ed asking governments across the world to regulate Facebook• harmful content is one area it's clear FB can't win. When even governments practice hate speech it's easier to just do whatever's legal vs pleasing no onehttps://t.co/oxrUHUi4eP Aaron Klein / @aaronklein : Notice how the behemoths always love uniform or “global” regulations. It's called protecting one's monopoly — they're the only ones who can afford to comply. http://twitter.com/... Ian Sherr / @iansherr : “Lawmakers often tell me we have too much power over speech, and frankly I agree. I've come to believe that we shouldn't make so many important decisions about speech on our own.” http://twitter.com/... @karangoel : tfw you're not capable of fixing the problems you created and have to call an adult for help http://twitter.com/... Martin Bryant / @martinsfp : “Effective privacy and data protection needs a globally harmonized framework” - correct but perhaps overly optimistic? http://twitter.com/... Rob Leathern / @robleathern : “legislation is important for protecting elections ... We believe legislation should be updated to reflect the reality of the threats and set standards for the whole industry.” http://twitter.com/... Sarah Frier / @sarahfrier : Zuckerberg asks to be regulated in four areas: harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability. “If we were starting from scratch, we wouldn't ask companies to make these judgments alone” http://www.facebook.com/... @facebook : Sharing Mark Zuckerberg's @washingtonpost op-ed laying out four ideas for regulating the internet and working with governments on the right approach http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Context & Ripple Effects
This call lands on top of a two-year arc of Zuckerberg repositioning Facebook around regulation and trust rather than growth-at-all-costs. The pivot began publicly with his 2017 mission letter, which was already criticized for being short on specifics about how Facebook would deliver positive impact, and continued through this year's privacy-focused platform shift toward messaging and his stated 2019 priorities of social-issue progress and transparency. The new element is that he is now explicitly asking governments to write rules in four areas — harmful content, election integrity, GDPR-like privacy, data portability — while commentators immediately flag that a global framework written with a large platform's input could lock in incumbents' advantages.
First-order effects
- Facebook gains a seat at the table for drafting the very rules that will govern content moderation, elections, privacy, and data portability — and simultaneously argues governments should not break it up, so compliance costs scale with its size.
Second-order effects
- Smaller platforms and startups face a different equation: GDPR-style compliance and content-policing obligations are far heavier relative to their resources, meaning any framework shaped by Facebook's proposals could raise barriers around its market position — the motive skeptics are pointing to.
Third-order effects
- If regulators adopt a harmonized global framework rather than country-by-country rules, platform governance shifts from ad hoc scandal-driven responses to codified law — with the largest platforms best positioned to absorb fixed compliance costs and influence the standard-setting process.
The trend: Big Tech is shifting from resisting regulation to shaping it, converting governance burdens into moats that favor incumbents over smaller rivals.