Facebook CEO says group will not become a media company

Facebook Inc. will not become a media company, its founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, telling students the firm would remain a technology platform. An increasing number of users are turning to social media networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to find their news, but Zuckerberg said his firm had no ambitions to become a content provider. “No, we are a tech company, not a media company,” said Zuckerberg, after a young Italian asked him whether Facebook intended to become a news editor. While acknowledging the role Facebook has in supplying users with news through their connections and stressing the advantages of obtaining information from different parts of the world, Zuckerberg said Facebook was “a technology company, we build the tools, we do not produce any content”. “The world needs news companies, but also technology platforms, like what we do, and we take our role in this very seriously,” he said, speaking from Rome’s Luiss university. Earlier on Monday, Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan had a private audience with Pope Francis.