On the eve of a parliamentary hearing alongside Twitter and Google on the role of social media in disinformation, Mark Zuckerberg called on US lawmakers to impose more responsibility on digital platforms when it comes to handling illegal content.
“
Whatever their political opinions, people want to make sure that companies take responsibility for fighting illegal content and activities on their platforms,
” the founder of the tech giant acknowledged in his opening remarks, published on the website of the Commission on Energy and Trade.
Read also: The day Facebook censored all press articles in Australia
Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai (Google) and Jack Dorsey (Twitter) are convened Thursday by this commission to answer questions from elected officials on the problem of disinformation, after years of tension on the subject and especially months of false rumors and content lies during the pandemic and the US presidential election.
They will evoke in particular “
Section 230
”, the law of 1996 which protects Internet hosts from lawsuits related to contents published by third parties, the cornerstone of social networks that many politicians want to reform.
"Systems for removing illegal content"
Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey have conceded in the past that the law could be amended, while highlighting the risks of negative consequences for the internet. “
Instead of having immunity, platforms should be forced to prove that they have systems in place to identify illegal content and remove it,
”detailed Mark Zuckerberg in his remarks.
According to him, this would make it possible to “
subordinate the legal protections
” of digital companies to “
their ability to fight in the best possible way the propagation of this content
”.
Read also: Facebook highlights its anti-disinformation efforts before a parliamentary hearing
But he notes that "
if specific content escapes detection
", the platform concerned should not be held responsible, as no company is able to guarantee full control over the billions of messages, links, videos and photos published each. day.
According to him, companies should just "
have adequate systems in place
", "
proportional to the size of the platform
" and "
determined by a third party
", so that the big players are not advantaged over start-ups.
Measures deemed insufficient
The measures of social networks against disinformation are considered largely insufficient by many elected officials (especially Democrats) and civil society organizations.
“
For too long, the tech giants have refused to recognize the role they have played in fabricating and spreading false information to their audiences.
Self-regulation of the industry has failed,
”said the parliamentary committee in its convening of the three bosses.
