Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that he is ‘worried’ other countries may be trying to mimic that approach China takes in regulating the internet during an hourlong video conversation Monday with European Union Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton.
“Just to be blunt about it, I think there is a model coming out of countries like China that tend to have very different values than Western countries that are more democratic.” He also added that it was up to Western democratic countries to have a clear framework for data privacy. “We have a joint responsibility to help develop this,” he said.
Zuckerberg has raised his concerns about the risk of the Chinese model of the internet spreading around the world, last year he said that it was crucial not to allow China to set up the rules for the rest of the internet that provoked tensions among Facebook’s Chinese employees.
Zuckerberg said that free-speech message will make regulator view Facebook as an ally against a more authoritarian internet, instead of looking at it as a target for more rigorous regulations.
Zuckerberg has also praised the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which implemented changes for how big-tech firms like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other internet companies collect user data in the EU. He said he believes cooperation between tech platforms and government regulators is inevitable. “I don’t think that there’s a question that there’s going to be regulation,” he said. “I think the question is, whose framework is going to win around the world?”
Thierry Breton, who has been critical of Facebook, said working together would be key. “I think that’s something that’s extremely important, is our ability to work together to design together, the right government tools, and behavior,” he said. “I think we should understand that, especially for the digital market. And more than that, for the information society at large.”
Source: The Verge
