Connectivity didn’t help, admits Facebook official

dubai — A Facebook official said that there is a downside in connecting people on social media and netizens’ data can be manipulated for various political persuasions.

Speaking at the 17th edition of the Arab Media Forum in Dubai on Tuesday, Patrick Walker, Facebook EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) director of media partnerships, said: “We’ve learned that by connecting people — even with great product and great connectivity — isn’t necessarily good. When anyone can upload anything instantaneously, it is a big responsibility for us to take very seriously.”

“We learned the hard way that we could do better to fight misinformation. We could do better than people manipulating ads around elections. And we could have done better to protect people’s data,” he added.

Walker was reacting to the latest controversy which hounded Facebook involving the consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica harvesting information of around 50million Facebook users to target US and British voters in close-run elections.

When asked by Khaleej Times to give his take on the same controversy, after his 20-minute speech, Walker said: “We’ve learned a lot over the past three years and we are taking a lot of these challenges very seriously.

“We have a lot of things to improve regarding news integrity, ads integrity and data protection. We are working very hard to make sure we do the right thing and it’s critical for our success and our partnerships,” he added. During his talk, Walker said the remedy to social media malaise is to have authentic engagement on social media.

“Give people the power to build communities and bring the world closer together. Put positive intent into your technology and create more opportunities for people to use technology positively,” he said.

Walker said Social responsibility and positive intent are the keys to a more engaging social media,” he reiterated.

Facebook analytics is sorting what is working and what is not and it is needed to have “a more meaningful social media interaction,” he concluded.

We’ve learned that by connecting people — even with great product and great connectivity — isn’t necessarily good.” Patrick Walker, EMEA director of media partnerships, Facebook