Facebook's future focus is privacy, says Zuckerberg
March 7, 2019
Mark Zuckerberg said that private communications will become more important than public platforms. The company's plan of increasing encryption may frustrate law enforcement's efforts to track criminals and extremists.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo/J. Sanchez
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Facebook will begin strengthening privacy features on its chat applications, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. The announcement comes as the social media giant has been in hot water over its handling of user data and the dissemination of fake news on its platforms.
Facebook is one of the largest private messaging companies with its WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram platforms. Each of them has more than 1 billion users, but only WhatsApp fully secures message content from all outsiders.
"The future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won't stick around forever," Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page.
Facebook's plan to enhance end-to-end encryption on its messaging services, Zuckerberg emphasized, would prevent anyone from seeing what people share, including Facebook itself.
Zuckerberg anticipated public skepticism about his plan to improve privacy, since the company does not have a "strong reputation for building privacy protective services." But he wrote that the company had "repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want."
Fighting for the internet: Social media, governments and tech companies
Germany has passed a new law on social media in 2017, despite complaints from social media companies worried about the impact on their business. But how far is too far? DW examines the trends.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kastl
Free speech or illegal content?
Whether hate speech, propaganda or activism, governments across the globe have upped efforts to curb content deemed illegal from circulating on social networks. From drawn-out court cases to blanket bans, DW examines how some countries try to stop the circulation of illicit content while others attempt to regulate social media.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/W. Kastl
Social media law
After a public debate in Germany, a new law on social media came into effect in October. The legislation imposes heavy fines on social media companies, such as Facebook, for failing to take down posts containing hate speech. Facebook and other social media companies have complained about the law, saying that harsh rules might lead to unnecessary censorship.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Hase
Right to be forgotten
In 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled that European citizens had the right to request search engines, such as Google and Bing, remove "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive" search results linked to their name. Although Google has complied with the ruling, it has done so reluctantly, warning that it could make the internet as "free as the world's least free place."
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Blanket ban
In May 2017, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Russian social media platforms and web services. The blanket ban affected millions of Ukrainian citizens, many of whom were anxious about their data. The move prompted young Ukrainians to protest on the streets, calling for the government to reinstate access to platforms that included VKontakte (VK), Russia's largest social network.
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Safe Harbor
In 2015, the European Court of Justice ruled that Safe Harbor, a 15-year-old pact between the US and EU that allowed the transfer of personal data without prior approval, was effectively invalid. Austrian law student Max Schrems launched the legal proceedings against Facebook in response to revelations made by former US National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Warnand
Regulation
In China, the use of social media is highly regulated by the government. Beijing has effectively blocked access to thousands of websites and platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Instead, China offers its citizens access to local social media platforms, such as Weibo and WeChat, which boast hundreds of millions of monthly users.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Imaginechina/Da Qing
Twitter bans Russia-linked accounts
Many politicians and media outlets blame Russia's influence for Donald Trump's election victory in 2016. Moscow reportedly used Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Instagram to shape public opinion on key issues. In October 2017, Twitter suspended over 2,750 accounts due to alleged Russian propaganda. The platform also banned ads from RT (formerly Russia Today) and the Sputnik news agency.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Rourke
Facebook announces propaganda-linked tool
With social media under pressure for allowing alleged Russian meddling, Facebook announced a new project to combat such efforts in November 2017. The upcoming page will give users a chance to check if they "liked" or followed an alleged propaganda account on Facebook or Instagram. Meanwhile, Facebook has come under fire for not protecting user data in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Image: picture alliance/NurPhoto/J. Arriens
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Moving on from public platforms?
Facebook's core platforms, such as newsfeed and groups services, as well as Instagram, will not undergo any changes. Zuckerberg's laser focus on private messaging suggests that the company may be looking beyond its original purpose of public sharing.
But Zuckerberg downplayed expectations. "It's not that I think the more public tools will go away," he said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. "All indications are that Facebook and Instagram will continue growing and be increasingly important," he added.
Nonetheless, in his announcement, he stressed that as he thought about the future of the internet, Zuckerberg saw that "privacy-focused communications platforms will become even more important than today's open platforms."
"Privacy gives people the freedom to be themselves and connect more naturally, which is why we build social networks," he wrote.
Critics of the social media giant and regulators have urged Facebook to crack down on harmful user content, but more encryption could make it difficult to find and track problematic posts.
Law enforcement authorities have also raised concerns that increased security would disrupt their ability to access online chat records, to track extremists or other criminals.
"Encryption is a powerful tool for privacy, but that includes the privacy of people doing bad things," Zuckerberg wrote on the issue.
"We face an inherent tradeoff because we will never find all of the potential harm we do today when our security systems can see the messages themselves," the Facebook CEO said, acknowledging the existing contradiction between increasing user privacy and working with law enforcement.
Increasing user content privacy could also undermine the company's business model, which depends on selling ads that are based on the platform's knowledge of its users.
Zuckerberg told AP that he was not too concerned about his plan's impact on profits. "How this affects the business down the line, we'll see," he said. "But if we do a good job in serving the need that people have, then there will certainly be an opportunity" to stay profitable.
