In a piece written for USA Today newspaper (a part of Facebook’s third-party fact checker program), he says Facebook’s goal is to help 4 million people register to vote in the US elections.
Facebook has faced heavy criticism for allowing adverts from politicians that contain false information. Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram will give users the option to turn off political, electoral and social issue adverts when they appear.
The company said it plans to make the feature available to all US users over the next few weeks and will offer it in other countries this autumn. Mr Zuckerberg went on to encourage people who aren't signed up as voters to register in time for the US election in November. He stressed Facebook’s responsibility not just to prevent voter suppression but to actively support well-informed voter engagement.
As part of the initiative a new information hub, called The Voting Information Center, with authoritative information, and details about voter registration and early voting, will be put at the top of American users’ Facebook and Instagram feeds from the beginning of July. Facebook estimates that the hub will reach 160 million Americans by the 3 November election.
Mr Zuckerberg also reiterated the platform’s commitment to protecting free speech stating that politicians have to be held accountable for what they say and that requires not moderating or removing the content they post.
Author: Mark Zuckerberg