Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gave a defiant speech on Thursday in which he highlighted the importance of free speech in response to critics’ demands for heightened content auditing amid the 2020 presidential election cycle.
“I’ve focused on building services to do two things: give people voice and bring people together,” Zuckerberg said while addressing a crowd at Georgetown University. “These two simple ideas — voice and inclusion — go hand in hand.”
“We’ve seen this throughout history, even if it doesn’t feel that way today. More people being able to share their perspectives has always been necessary to build a more inclusive society,” he continued. “And our mutual commitment to each other — that we hold each others’ right to express our views and be heard above our own desire to always get the outcomes we want — is how we make progress together.”
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“The future depends on all of us. Whether you like Facebook or not, we need to recognize what is at stake and come together to stand for free expression at this critical moment,” Zuckerberg said. “I believe in giving people a voice because, at the end of the day, I believe in people.”
“And as long as enough of us keep fighting for this, I believe that more people’s voices will eventually help us work through these issues together and write a new chapter in our history — where from all of our individual voices and perspectives, we can bring the world closer together,” he added. – READ MORE