Mark Zuckerberg: Idea of fake news on Facebook influencing elections is crazy

After facing a day of criticism over how Facebook played a big role in spreading fake news and eventually influencing the elections, CEO Mark Zuckerberg refutes the claim calling it ‘crazy’. At the Technonomy conference ( via TheVerge), Zuckerberg said that, “Personally I think the idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way — I think is a pretty crazy idea. Voters make decisions based on their lived experience.” He went on to explain that how there is ’lack of empathy’ to say that the only reason someone could have voted is because they were influenced by a fake news. Zuckerberg added, “If you believe that, then I don’t think you have internalized the message the Trump supporters are trying to send in this election. Further he went on saying how fake news would be on both sides, and not just one side. There would have been articles about both Hillary and Trump. When asked about filter bubble at the conference, he reportedly said, “Liberals and conservatives see about 1 percent less news from the opposing side than they would if Facebook didn’t tweak the news feed.” He said so citing a study conducted on 10.1 million politically-inclined users. Filter bubble means Trump supporters will see news only from fellow Trump supports, and likewise Hillary supports from others supporting her. However, the report adds that according to many researchers the results of the study are skewed as it was conducted on a small subset of people ready to reveal their political affiliation, and not on random people. Finally, Zuckerberg did say that he is concerned about how Facebook affects democracy, and would work at improved and better distribution of news. After Trump was elected as the President, Zuckerberg put up a Facebook post alongside a picture with Max, writing how everyone can work harder together. After the elections, other tech CEOs like Satya Nadella also took to congratulating Trump, but not without mentioning the company’s commitment in fostering a diverse and inclusive culture. Tim Cook also wrote a letter to his employees on ‘moving forward together’.