Founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has defended his network over claims of aiding the rise of newly elected United States President Donald Trump with spread of fake news.
In his speech at Techonomy, a technology conference in California, Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook should not be held responsible.
“The idea that fake news on Facebook influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea,” he said.
“If you believe that then I don’t think you have internalized the message Trump supporters are trying to send in this election.”
Facebook is fast becoming the primary source of news for many including Americans, and this is the reason why the social network has been fingered.
Earlier this year, Facebook was accused of being anti-Trump after it was alleged its human moderators were favouring liberal stories from appearing in people’s “trending stories” box.
While denying that claim, the site did sack its human team, instead relying solely on an algorithm to determine which stories were shown to be most popular.
As a consequence, stories which were later proved entirely false appeared on the timelines of a large number of users.
When asked about checks and balances needed to keep a company like Facebook in line, Mr Zuckerberg said it was about “listening to what people want”.
“My goal, and what I care about, is giving people the power to share so we can make the world more open and connected. That requires building a good version of News Feed. We still have work to do on that. We’re going to keep improving it.
“On the community guidelines, I think as norms change and people want to see more news, I think we’ll have to continue to evolve the guidelines to reflect the value that the community holds.”
