SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Founder and Chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday rejected the thought that false stories shared at the social network paved a path of victory for President-elect Donald Trump.
“The idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way I think is a pretty crazy idea,” Zuckerberg said during an on-stage chat at a Technonomy technology trends conference in California.
He also dismissed worries about Facebook users existing in “bubbles” where they only see news or perspectives echoing their viewpoints.
“Voters make decisions based on their lived experience,” Zuckerberg said.
“You don’t generally go wrong when you trust that people understand what they care about and what’s important to them and you build systems that reflect that.”
He added that research gathered at Facebook suggests news-filter bubbles are not a problem.
While acknowledging the importance of the election, Facebook chief advised maintaining faith that most progress in innovation is made by private citizens, typically without help from the government.
“These elections make a real difference in the world, but it would not be right to suggest that it changes the fundamental arc of technology or progress over time,” Zuckerberg said.
