Mark Zuckerberg Responds To Allegations Of Making People 'Angry For Profit,' Safety Of Kids And More

Facebook Inc FB CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday responded to media reports and a host of allegations made against the company in recent weeks, including by whistleblower Frances Haugen, and also addressed the wide outage that crippled the company's platforms on Monday.

In a post on Facebook, Zuckerberg defended the social media company’s work, made a note that the recent coverage is not a reflection of its motives and alleged that a false picture was being painted.

On Making People 'Angry For Profit:' “The argument that we push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical,” Zuckerberg said, adding that the social media company makes money from ads and has consistently heard from advertisers that they do not want to be seen next to "harmful or angry content."

No tech company makes products that make people angry or depressed, as per the Facebook CEO. The "moral, business, and product incentives" all point in the opposites direction.

On How Instagram Affects Kids: The Cupertino, California-based company has been under media fire for allegedly overlooking internal research pointing at how Facebook’s photo-sharing app Instagram is harming minors, especially teenage girls.

Zuckerberg said most of those claims didn't make sense and that the company was not ignoring or hiding the research. As per the CEO, Facebook has dedicated huge resources towards fighting “harmful content” than any other company in the space.

Zuckerberg said it is frustrating to see work being mischaracterized but the company will keep doing research because it's the right thing to do.

The 37-year old CEO of the tech giant said he has been asking for updating internet regulations for several years now to ensure privacy and protection for the younger audience. 

“I have testified in Congress multiple times and asked them to update these regulations,” he said. “What is the right age for teens to be able to use internet services? How should internet services verify people's ages? And how should companies balance teens' privacy while giving parents visibility into their activity?” 

Zuckerberg said that an informed conversation about the effects of social media on young people is where one needs to start to address the issue.

On Global Outage: Zuckerberg called the outage the worst the company had in years and mentioned that the company spent 24-hours deliberating on how to avoid "this kind of failure". He added that the deeper concern was not the material loss as a result of the outage or how many users switched to other services but rather how so many people rely on Facebook.

See Also: Facebook Says This Is What Caused The Outage Of Its Platforms

Why It Matters: Zuckerberg’s post comes hours after U.S. lawmakers demanded probes to investigate Facebook after whistleblower accusations that the social media company harms children and stokes divisions.

Haugen, a former employee of the social media company who turned whistleblower, on Tuesday called for transparency about how Facebook entices users to extend their stay on the site, giving it ample opportunity to advertise to them.  

Facebook on Monday also battled a near six-hour global outage, just a day ahead of the Senate hearing.

Price Action: Facebook shares closed 2.06% higher at $332.96 a share on Tuesday.

Photo: Courtesy of Anthony Quintano on Flickr