Zuckerberg Says Facebook Will Work With Governments on Speech

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said his company would work with governments to determine what content is acceptable on social-media networks.

Zuckerberg made the comment in an interview on France2 television after meeting with President Emmanuel Macron on Friday and following the release of a French government report that said new regulation should be applied to large social-media companies.

“Democracy works and that’s why we want to work with the Macron government,” Zuckerberg said in a French translation of the interview. “We’re responsible for making sure that hate speech isn’t on our products and services, but what seems important is that there needs to be a public process to determine what is unacceptable, what mustn’t be on these networks, and we’re going to work with governments to do it.”

Facebook and other social media companies are confronting a crescendo of criticism in Europe and the U.S. over how they handle personal data, hate speech, and their vulnerability to manipulation. The rising outrage prompted Zuckerberg in March to call for government regulation of four broad areas -- harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.

The French government report, which will serve as a basis for redefining how France deals with hate speech, said new rules should make social networks accountable “for protecting the integrity their members, protecting users from abuse by other members and third-party attempts to manipulate the platform.”

Zuckerberg filed another post after his meeting with Macron. “We both believe governments should take a more active role around important issues like balancing expression and safety, privacy and data portability, and preventing election interference,” he wrote. “There are nuanced decisions to make here, such as how we should handle content that isn’t illegal but might cause harm.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alan Katz in Paris at akatz5@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Katz at akatz5@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz, Robin Ajello

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