What Stays on Facebook and What Goes? The Social Network Cannot Answer
What Stays on Facebook and What Goes? The Social Network Cannot Answer
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTYou have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.State of the ArtFacebook executives from Mark Zuckerberg on down have been almost comically tripped up by some of the most basic questions the site faces.Credit...Gerard Julien/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesJuly 19, 2018Facebook was once the most nimble company of its generation. The speed at which it adapted to every challenge was legendary. It needed only about a decade to go from a dorm-room start-up to the largest and most influential communications platform in the world.But it’s been two years since an American presidential campaign in which the company was a primary vector for misinformation and state-sponsored political interference — and Facebook still seems paralyzed over how to respond.In exchanges with reporters and lawmakers over the past week, its leaders — including Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive — have been comically tripped up by some of the most basic questions the site faces. Mr. Zuckerberg, in an interview with the journalist Kara Swisher that was published Wednesday, argued that Facebook would not ban Holocaust denialism on the site because “there are things that different people get wrong.” He later explained there were many other ways that Holocaust deniers could be penalized by Facebook — yet lucidity remained elusive.Mr. Zuckerberg’s comments fit a larger pattern. Presented with straightforward queries about real-world harm caused by misinformation on their service, Facebook’s executives express their pain, ask for patience, proclaim their unwavering commitment to political neutrality and insist they are as surprised as anyone that they are even in the position of having to come up with speech rules for billions of people.Testifying before Congress in the spring, Mr. Zuckerberg vowed to address lawmakers’ concerns about the site. Even though his business has continued to prosper, he repeatedly warned investors that he would take actions to address Facebook’s social impact that could negatively impact its bottom line.Yet Facebook executives’ tortured musings in recent weeks suggest that the task ahead remains difficult. The company that was once pilloried for its heedlessness — its motto was “move fast, break things” and it put up posters around its offices asking employees “What would you do if you weren’t afraid?” — is now moving slow, fixing little and taking no stand.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENT