Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg calls for internet regulations

The internet needs new rules to prevent the spread of hate speech, protect privacy and data and prevent election interference, Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said.

In a column for the Washington Post, Zuckerberg said “a more active role” was needed for governments and regulators.

“Technology is a major part of our lives, and companies such as Facebook have immense responsibilities,” he wrote.

“Every day, we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, and how to prevent sophisticated cyber attacks.

“These are important for keeping our community safe. But we have to start from scratch, we wouldn’t ask companies to make these judgements alone.”

He said regulation was needed in four areas: “harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability”.

Facebook came in for intense criticism after the deadly attack on two mosques in Christchurch, during which the gunman live-streamed the events on Facebook.

It has also been criticised for allowing Russianbacked trolls to post ads aimed at influencing the 2016 US presidential election, as well as over the Cambridge Analytica data harvesting scandal.

On Wednesday the social media giant said it would ban content supporting white nationalism and white separatism on its platforms and on Thursday it said it had introduced stricter rules on advertising in the run-up to European Parliament elections in MAY.(SBS)