Is Facebook in Trouble?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2018
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It is one of the largest, most profitable companies in the world, with billions of users, but more and more questions are being asked of Facebook. Accused of allowing the spread of fake news and hate speech, and of turning a blind eye to election meddling by Russia, Facebook is in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. Facebook’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has committed himself to “fixing Facebook.”
With the help of experts in the field, in the US, India and Germany, we ask if Facebook really is in trouble.
Presenter: Helena Merriman Producers: John Murphy and Josephine Casserly
(Photo: Indian demonstrators protest against Facebook's Free Basics initiative in Bangalore on 2 January, 2016. Credit: Manjunath Kiran/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me, Helena Merriman. |
| 0:10.0 | Each week we bring you four expert witnesses, answering one pressing question from the news. |
| 0:18.1 | On January the 4th this year, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of the social networking company Facebook, |
| 0:24.0 | posted a message on the site. It's become a ritual. Every year, a new personal challenge. |
| 0:30.9 | In the past, he's pledged to only eat meat he's butchered himself to learn Mandarin and run 365 miles |
| 0:38.5 | But this year for the first time his challenge wasn't about him. |
| 0:43.2 | It was about his company. |
| 0:45.4 | Facebook has a lot of work to do, he wrote, |
| 0:49.8 | whether it's protecting our community from abuse and hate |
| 0:53.3 | or defending against interference by nation states. |
| 0:57.2 | My personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues. |
| 1:05.0 | Fix Facebook. |
| 1:07.0 | That was the message. |
| 1:09.0 | It's been criticized for spreading fake news, |
| 1:12.0 | encouraging hate speech, and turning a blind eye to election meddling |
| 1:16.4 | by Russia. At the end of last year, its executives were grilled by the US Congress and given a clear message. |
| 1:25.0 | You've created these platforms and now they are being misused. |
| 1:30.0 | And you have to be the ones to do something about it. |
| 1:35.0 | Or we will. |
| 1:39.0 | This week we're asking, is Facebook in trouble. Part 1, logging off. |
| 1:54.0 | So at first, Facebook for me as a journalist was just about this unstoppable machine. |
| 2:06.0 | People were not really concerned so much about its role in the world, but really just about |
... |
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