Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was asked Wednesday about whether Facebook is accelerating the decline of society.
Zuckerberg replied in the negative, saying, “I have a little more confidence in democracy than that, and I hope my confidence isn’t misplaced.”
It was part of a wide-ranging interview with “Axios on HBO.”
He noted that there is a high amount of engagement with political content on the social media platform, but he stressed that it’s not what most people see.
“It’s true that partisan content often has kind of a higher percent of people … engaging with it, commenting on it, liking it,” Zuckerberg said. “I think it’s important to differentiate that from, broadly, what people are seeing and reading and learning about on our service.”
It came as he was asked about whether Facebook contains more content that could be perceived as right-wing. He said that is is “just wrong” to consider it a right-leaning echo chamber.
In the interview, he said Facebook has been quick to take down misinformation about COVID-19, but he stressed that so-called “anti-vaxxer” content, or content that criticizes vaccines, may not be taken down in the same manner.
“If someone is pointing out a case where a vaccine caused harm or that they’re worried about it—you know, that’s a difficult thing to say from my perspective that you shouldn’t be allowed to express at all,” Zuckerberg said.
Earlier this month, the social media giant announced it would bar all new political advertising starting the week before the November election. Zuckerberg said that the firm would “very aggressively take down any threats against those people who are going to be involved in doing the counting and making sure that the election goes the way it’s supposed to.”
