Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the World Wide Web (www) was in Nigeria in March as part of a 30 hour tour of a few cities around the world to mark the birthday of the web – 30 years old. He may not have pulled in a quarter of the crowd that Facebook draws at any of its events, but only a few people would have doubted the sincerity of Berners-Lee in asking the world to sanitize the internet.
At the 2018 Web Summit in Portugal, the father of the web also gave the same message, this time in front of over 70,000 people; it easily resonated among the world leaders, tech business owners and ecosystem that attended the event.
Fast forward to March 30, 2019, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is making a similar proposal, this time asking governments to create new rules and more regulation for internet companies, but even his followers cannot only wait to see his recommendations die a natural death, they want him to look in the mirror first.
Writing in the Washington Post and on his own Facebook page over the weekend, the Facebook CEO asked “governments and regulators” around the world to play more active role by updating the rules for the internet.
He set out four areas in which he believes regulations are needed including harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability.
“Internet companies should be accountable for enforcing standards on harmful content,” Zuckerberg said. “It’s impossible to remove all harmful content from the internet, but when people use dozens of different sharing services – all with their own policies and processes – we need a more standardised approach.”
Taken literarily, Zuckerberg’s proposal is as bold as it is timely. It is coming at a time when millions of online users are facing different threats including rise in online criminality, fake news platforms, hate speeches, cyber racism and supremacist ideologies. Cyber bullying statistics worldwide also reveal alarming facts about virtual harassment.
His recommendations, broad as they may seem, has however failed to win the hearts of people on social media including his followers on Facebook.
One of Zuckerberg’s followers, Dan Genduso said Facebook’s advanced systems make it hard to trust the company.
“Facebook isn’t operating on a very high level of trust right now,” he wrote. “Why does Facebook feel that it is okay to capture data about me in the first 20 minutes of me going to another website that I’ve never been to prior and have no history of agreeing to a terms of use?”
“Dear Mark, why does Facebook block people who speak out, an opinion that is harmless?” asked Martha Klopper, another follower of Zuckerberg. “What is happening right now? For me it is as if both sides do not want to understand each other.”
One of the lessons Zuckerberg could learn from Berners-Lee is one of the things Facebook is most guilty of – sincerity. First, in his essay, Zuckerberg praises the efforts his company has been making in curbing harmful content; he suggests government is to blame for not engaging enough with content creators.
“Facebook gives everyone a way to use their voice, and that creates real benefits – from sharing experiences to growing movements,” he wrote. The government’s weak role-play means that even responsible companies like Facebook which must necessarily “make mistakes” because of its market scale are not held accountable.
In the case of Berners-Lee, there is no dancing around to find where the problem lies or who to blame; no effort at pushing an ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ narrative. As Zuckerberg is just realising, it always backfires.
“You can’t just blame one government, one social network or the human spirit,” Berners-Lee wrote in a post to mark the 30th anniversary of the web. “Simplistic narratives risk exhausting our energy as we chase the symptom of these problems instead of focusing on their root causes. To get this right, we will need to come together as a global web community.”
David Cicilline, the chairman of antitrust committee in the US House of Representatives was among the first officials who dismissed Zuckerberg’s call. According to him, Zuckerberg does not get to make the rules anymore.
“Facebook is under criminal and civil investigation,” Cicilline told the Financial Times. “It has shown it cannot regulate itself. Does anyone even want his advice?”
Actually the government in Nigeria may need Zuckerberg’s advice especially in playing more active role. The government only managed to get Facebook officials on the hot seat during the Cambridge Analytica fiasco which revealed how a presidential candidate attempted to influence voters’ choice by circulating hate videos. The result of that inquiry was never made public. Even when Facebook revealed that data belonging to about 200,000 Nigerians were compromised, investigations were not carried out.
In reeling out its achievements, Zuckerberg also came across pompous. The whole article was more of Facebook selling its big ideas and dream to the rest of the world. But the antecedents do not quite agree with Facebook’s high moral grounds.
To be fair to the victims of the Cambridge Analytica data, Zuckerberg should be playing a supporting role to Berners-Lee than taking the centre stage.
As said “The web is for everyone and collectively we hold the power to change it. It won’t be easy. But if we dream a little and work a lot, we can get the web we want.”
Join BusinessDay whatsapp Channel, to stay up to date
Open In Whatsapp
