Mark Zuckerberg's year end note is optimistic about Facebook, but also tone deaf

In an end-of-year note by Mark Zuckerberg, you’d have thought that after all the drama that Facebook had to face this year, the company CEO, would maybe find it difficult to appear optimistic. But on the contrary, Zuckerberg is happy at how his company has transformed and taken steps to contain the misuse of its platform. The note can be seen as a bunch of words that give out the message how Mark Zuckerberg is “proud” of his company, about the “focus” of the company and how much the company has progressed. [caption id=“attachment_5296531” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”] Cardboard cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Image: Reuters[/caption] In his post, he might have mentioned that he was “proud” of the company three times, and on the company’s ‘progress’ five times, but not once do you read the word ‘Sorry’. There’s no mention either about the high profile departures this year — **WhatsApp co-founder** Jan Koum to **Instagram founders** Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Through the note he acknowledges that the social-media giant has been a medium in spreading hate speech, ‘fake news’ and has intervened in the elections, but the note instead of apologising (again) and maybe being a little empathetic towards its users, seems to put Facebook on a pedestal for all the corrective measures it took. With Facebook being in news every now and then for some wrong-doing to its users, Zuckerberg has spoken of how in future there will be advanced systems in the world to identify and resolve issues.

In the post, Zuckerberg mentions how there are now “more than 30,000 people working on safety” and there is an investment of “billions of dollars in security yearly”, but still he says the problem of “election interference or harmful speech…can never fully be solved.“As mentioned in TechCrunch Facebook’s employers have long complained about long hours and low pay and inhuman posts that moderators have to review each day. Zuckerberg might have to take into consideration that maybe the number of staffers may not be enough to fight the battle of violence and abusive content floating on the site.Also this year Facebook witnessed the **departure of its Chief Security Officer** , Alex Stamos, but there is no mention of a replacement. Fake news, spread of misinformation, meddling in elections, privacy breaches are not only the things Facebook has got infamous for, but the company was also in the news for playing a role in Myanmar's genocide .

There were questions directly from US lawmakers addressing this issue, but there has been no acknowledgement of it in the note either. So with Zuckerberg ending his word-post on an optimistic note putting forth a case showing Facebook as a changed and more proactive company, it is time that these words turn into actions. 2018 has been an eventful year, and here’s our comprehensive list of year ender stories .