Facebook is 15 years old and Mark Zuckerberg is defending his creation amid the harsh criticism he has received over the past year for misinformation, data misuse and manipulation of his users.
ΤFacebook is a "force of good" underlines Mark Zuckerberg, "celebrating" the 15th anniversary of the creation of Facebook with a very long post on his profile.
His report from the course of the dominant social network so far is "positive" as he states, pointing out that "it is wrong to emphasize the negative effects of social media and the Internet".
This position is anything but accidental, given that Facebook has been in the "eye of the storm" for the last year and a half, a scandal that has greatly affected the glamor it enjoyed until recently. The revelations about the illegal use and trafficking of users' personal data, secret collaborations with advertising companies, uncontrolled dissemination of secret news, etc., resulted in Zuckerberg himself being dragged to a congressional hearing, while the European Union has shown that she is no longer willing to roll her eyes at how Facebook works.
In his post, Zuckerberg emphasizes that "while every rapid social change causes uncertainty, in this case we see the world gaining more power, leading in the long run to the transformation of society." And as he points out, thanks to Facebook and other social networks, the way people interact with communities and institutions has changed.
He predicts that in the next 15 years we will witness how people use this power to reshape society in ways that will have a positive impact for many more decades to come.
The truth is that in the end Zuckerberg himself has every reason to feel optimistic. Despite the countless scandals, but also the "hostile" to some extent public attitude towards it, Facebook closed 2018 with record profits of 22 billion dollars, while its revenue jumped to 55 billion dollars. Finally reassuring those who are worried and trying to entertain the (bad) impressions, he emphasizes that in the near future even more emphasis will be placed on issues of security and transparency.
Fifteen years ago today, I launched the first version of the Facebook website from my college dorm. At the time, it…
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg am Monday, 4th of February 2019
