Mark Zuckerberg wants more internet regulation

Mark Zuckerberg has had a lot of ideas in his relatively short life. He announced on Saturday that he has four more new ones.

Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, wrote an op-ed published around the world, including in The Washington Post, calling on governments to take greater action toward regulating the internet worldwide. Essentially, Zuckerberg makes the case that Facebook and other companies do not have the ability to control everything that happens on their site without a more standardized legal framework. Zuckerberg and Facebook have come under fire for failing to protect their users' private information, so the timing of this op-ed makes sense. But it likely won't save the company from ongoing investigations. Here is a brief breakdown:

Harmful content regulation — Zuckerberg said that while internet companies should be held accountable for harmful content — like the videos of the Christchurch shooting that spread on Facebook — Zuckerberg argues there needs to be a standardized approach implemented by third-party governing bodies.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Election protection legislation — He then called for legislation on protecting elections because it's not always clear if an advertisement is political or not, making it difficult for companies to decide what to ban. Again, he advocated for common standards to decipher what is and what is not a fairly targeted ad.

Privacy and data protection — Here, Zuckerberg praised the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation plan. He said he wants a comprehensive, globalized plan in the same vein that does not vary country by country. Zuckerberg believes this plan would allow for people to choose how their information is used, while companies can still use certain information for safety purposes and to provide services.

Data portability — Zuckerberg's last major point is that regulation should guarantee data portability. That is, if someone shares data with one service they should be able to move it to another one, again giving users greater choice, while allowing multiple companies to innovate and compete on the web.