Mark Zuckerberg has given in to government pressure to regulate speech on the internet.
During a meeting with world leaders, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has asked governments to define what people are allowed to say online.
New attack on free speech
There have been multiple countries in the world that have tried to impose restrictive measures on the comments that can be published on the internet.
In most cases, politicians have argued that these laws would be a way to prevent the spread of false information and a solution to eliminate harassment on the internet.
Against all odds, one of the most popular social networks in the world, Facebook, seems to have given the green light to politicians to apply the controversial rules to control public opinion.
Zuckerberg’s decision
During the Munich Security Conference 2020, held between February 14 to 16, multiple world leaders gathered to discuss today’s social security policies.
On Saturday 15, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg attended the conference as a participant, offering a series of controversial statements that could be the result of pressure from European countries and the United States.
Zuckerberg told the assembly of Western leaders at the Munich Security Conference that:
“There should be more guidance and regulation from the states on basically – take political advertising as an example – what discourse should be allowed?”
In simple terms, Zuckerberg asked governments to define what types of speech or comments they are willing to accept on social networks and other websites.
Zuckerberg said that there should be a better guide by governments about what is legal or not to say on the internet, using political speech as an example.
Despite all the efforts made by companies such as Google so that these laws are not approved, Zuckerberg’s statements could be what politicians needed to resume attempts to implement them.
During his speech at the Munich Security Conference, Zuckerberg said that these regulations should be “balanced”, accepted by society, and applied equally to all.
However, achieving such a balance has proved to be virtually impossible in the past, since once a government begins to ban opinions, they simply start removing more speech until they eliminate any negative criticism towards them.
