Zuckerberg denies fake stories swayed election

  11 November 2016    Read: 1427
Zuckerberg denies fake stories swayed election
Mark Zuckerberg has rejected the idea that fake news on Facebook influenced the US presidential election and said echo-chambers aren`t really a problem on the site.
The co-founder of the social network was responding to criticism following Donald Trump`s victory in the elections, from people who argued the company allowed false information to run rampant on its site and that its algorithm tended to amplify the voices people wanted to hear, instead of providing a full picture of what was going on.

Mr Zuckerberg, speaking at the Technonomy conference in Half Moon Bay, California, said the company certainly has work to do to improve the news feed, but said false stories were a small portion of the content shared.

"That it influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea," he said. People vote based on their life experiences, and anyone who thinks fake news contributed to the outcome betrays a "profound lack of empathy" for Mr Trump`s camp, he said.

Facebook has constantly studied the effect of its news feed. Mr Zuckerberg says the idea that it shields people from diverse opinions is a misconception -- a particularly difficult theory for him to quash.

"All of the research we have suggests that this hasn`t really been a problem. The biggest filter in the system is not that the content isn`t there, but just that you don`t click on it."

More about:


News Line