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Mark Zuckerberg loves the sound of his own voice – or at least, the sound he makes when typing really fast.
Why else would he release this dissertation-length essay on the kind of world Facebook is working to create?
It’s a lesson in Silicon Valley jargon, so here’s a run-down of what he’s really getting at.
In the post, he addresses issues the social network has been accused of contributing to – including filter bubbles, and accuracy of information.
It wouldn’t be a 2017 op-ed without a mention of fake news, which Zuckerberg does almost apologetically.
Mark Zuckerberg – We’re working on new ways to bring your… | Facebook
But he also maintains that “the vast majority of conversations on Facebook are social, not ideological”.
“They’re friends sharing jokes and families staying in touch across cities,” he says – so Facebook is more cat photos than professional trolls sharing fake news stories, in his opinion.
He also lists the things he wants Facebook to actively do, including “building a global community that works for everyone”, whatever that means – but he does give some examples of people with rare diseases that have found communities online to join.
Mark Zuckerberg – Mark Zuckerberg voting in the U.S. Election. | Facebook
He discusses the need for an “inclusive community” mentioning the site’s mistaken removal of videos showing police violence and the Vietnam Terror of war image.
“This has been painful for me because I often agree with those criticising us that we’re making mistakes,” he says, adding it’s “operational scaling issues” rather than staff ideology that’s caused the errors.
In another section, headlined “Safe Community”, Zuckerberg says Facebook’s investing more into “global safety infrastructure”, which could mean more features like the check-in option after terrorist attacks.
should we keep facebook safety check feature on for the next 4 yrs?
— Vjeran Pavic (@vjeranpavic) January 20, 2017
He’s already said he won’t run for president, but he makes no references to the actual events that Facebook’s power to influence has been involved in, like Brexit or Trump.
Essentially, he’s written a lot without really saying a huge amount that was new.
The public’s reaction below was decidedly more entertaining.
Of the 3,171 comments, some people were telling him how great he was using via the medium of Facebook stickers, others were asking for personal profile verification, the odd one questioned the firm’s tax arrangements, while some just asked the billionaire for cash.
