Zuckerberg seeks to "clear up" the position on Facebook, false news and the Holocaust: NPR

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg clarifies what he said about Holocaust deniers, saying he was not defending those people when he said that it was difficult to know their intentions. "I personally find the Holocaust denial deeply shocking and I have absolutely no intention of defending the intent of people who deny this," Zuckerberg wrote to Kara Swisher of Recode. Wednesday. , the day after the site published a long interview with the billionaire.

In the original interview, Swisher asked Zuckerberg about Facebook's policy of cutting down false news – it took a variety of approaches to fight, after false sources of information were used to manipulating voters in the 2016 presidential elections.

Swisher took as an example the Sandy Hook School Mbadacre, asking Zuckerberg why Facebook would allow an organization to publish a conspiracy theory that the murders have all been organized.

After hinting that Facebook would be faster Zuckerberg offered the Holocaust example to a Sandy Hook victim rather than suppressing a fake report promoting conspiracy theory.

"I am Jewish, and there is a series of people who deny that the Holocaust took place. I said.

"I find that deeply shocking," continued Zuckerberg. "But at the end of the day, I do not believe that our platform should shoot it down because I think there are things that different people are wrong about, I do not think that's wrong." they are voluntarily that is wrong, but I think … "

Seeming to consider the issue as a matter of freedom of expression, the founder of Facebook said:" I do not think that's the right thing to say, "We are"

He mentioned the fact that some people who speak in a public forum may just be wrong, but his critics said that denying Holocaust was a lot. more dangerous and problematic – and that Zuckerberg's claim that some of these denials were not made to deceive people was staggering.

"It's annoying!" wrote Cale Weissman of Fast Company after uttering blasphemies ("holy ****") to repel the subject.

"This position is so weird, it's hard to know where to start," writes Yair Rosenberg in the Atlantic.

The Anti-Defamation League has declared that Facebook has "the obligation not to publish" lies about the Holocaust.

In the interview, Zuckerberg stated that "Our goal with fake news is not to prevent someone from saying something wrong – but to stop the false news and the misinformation that is spreading in our world, "said Zuckerberg." If something is spread and distorted by the factual verifiers, it would lose the vast majority of its distribution in News Feed. "[19659008] Facebook would take a hard line, said Zuckerberg, if anyone issued calls for violence or attempted to organize any type of attacks.

In his clarification email to Swisher , he concluded, "I believe that often the best way to fight a bad offensive speech is a good speech."

The lively debate on Zuckerberg's remarks is the latest in a series of debates. simply a technological platform, or if it should be it is better perceived – and considered – as a medium. This issue has become more complicated as the tech giant spends more on attracting and creating programming.

In January, Facebook declared that it was changing the operation of its influential News Feed, highlighting "high quality" news articles and repelling others, as Aarti reported. Shahani of NPR.

In recent months, Facebook has reached agreements with journalists such as CNN's Anderson Cooper and Fox News' Shep Smith, who are creating shows specifically for the platform. Other press organizations are also involved in the agreement, which aims to attract viewers to the Watch Facebook video section.

Last week, Facebook's policies were also questioned. to stimulate their most publicized projects.

People from two media – KPBS and the Texas Tribune – complained that Facebook did not run ads because they were considered political. In the case Tribune an advertisement asked young people the issues that preoccupied them most, before the November elections. At KPBS, an attempt to promote a story about migrant children appearing in court without their parents was banned.

In response to complaints about KPBS's decision, Rob Leathern, Facebook's product director, said the problem "only applies to ads running on the platform and that it's can be repaired by completing the authorization process ".

broadcast advertisements in the United States on electoral or political issues that you will need to go through the licensing process, including separately designated news outlets in the ad archives where such advertisements are kept publicly.

advertisers, he said in another tweet. This and other tweets were posted in response to a publication by Jean Guerrero, who wrote the piece of investigation for KPBS. The piece, she said, was actually censored by Facebook.

In a separate thread centered on the Texas Tribune's attempt to place an ad, Amanda Zamora, chief editor of the magazine, asked why the ad was so thoroughly scrutinized, when "materially false and harmful" information go through Facebook's news feed. This is the second @texastribune Facebook post dismissed as a "political" ad in a week – we do not use FB to buy traffic, but sometimes target audiences and / or prospects. Too bad efforts to engage readers in our journalism must be checked when so much garbage fills my diet [18]. "Bad efforts to engage readers in our journalism need to be checked, as so much garbage is filling my stream," Zamora wrote.

A few days after Facebook announced its intention to promote reliable news in January, the company acknowledged that social media can have negative ramifications for democracy.

Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook's social engagement product manager, said the service was "used unpredictably with social repercussions that were never anticipated."