

Zuckerberg once dismissed the idea that misinformation on Facebook could have influenced the U.S. Now, Zuckerberg has asked regulators to intervene after all, albeit under a framework he has laid out himself.įacebook's more forthcoming approach to regulation mirrors the way it has changed its communication about misinformation and privacy breaches. The company established election "war rooms" to combat misinformation around various international elections, hired legions of content moderators, built a new tool that helps disclose where political ads on the site come from and said it would establish an independent content oversight board empowered to overturn the company's decision on whether posts remain on its platform. Previously, Facebook had taken steps to display that it could regulate itself without lawmakers needing to step in. Zuckerberg's direct call for regulation is just the most straightforward example of this strategy to date. When it comes to the people who could most directly force Facebook to change its business model - regulators and lawmakers - Facebook has shifted from a dismissive to proactive response.

Its average revenue per user came in at $7.37 for the quarter, beating analyst estimates of $7.11, as forecast by FactSet.įacebook did not respond to a request for comment on this article. In its final quarter of 2018, Facebook met analysts' expectations for daily and monthly active users, which measured 1.52 billion and 2.32 billion, respectively. The earnings report showed that users and advertisers alike stuck with the platform despite privacy doubts. In 2019 alone, the stock has risen about 33%. Over the past 12 months, Facebook's stock has rallied about 11% as investors have gained back confidence on the heels of the company's strong Q4 2018 earnings report in January. The New York Times characterized Facebook's initial approach to the onslaught of PR faux pas as "Delay, Deny and Deflect." Now, Facebook seems to favor getting out in front of news reports of data breaches or regulatory proposals to set the narrative boundaries itself.īy and large, while potentially hefty fines loom from the Federal Trade Commission and from regulators abroad, Facebook has proven it's still able to keep users and advertisers on its platforms, if not win back their trust entirely. On March 30, he published a call for governments to regulate the internet in ways that will limit harmful content, protect privacy, maintain the integrity of elections and ensure data portability.įacebook's evolving response to regulators, lawmakers, users and advertisers in the year since Zuckerberg's two-day testimony on Capitol Hill underscores the crisis of trust executives have tried to navigate while maintaining control of the business. A year later, Zuckerberg has laid out his own answer to that question before lawmakers could beat him to the punch.
