Everything EOS Everything EOS Podcast, 17 Oct 2019

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From YouTube: Voice is on Mark Zuckerberg's Mind. Mentions Verifying Identity.

Description

Mark Zuckerberg drops the word "Voice" 35x during today's speech at Georgetown University outside of Washington DC. At minimum, this shows the value of the brand/trademark in Voice. But could it possibly be anything more that?

Read full speech: https://www.facebook.com/notes/mark-zuckerberg/standing-for-voice-and-free-expression/10157267502546634/

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A

Today we lost an icon, Elijah Cummings. He was a powerful voice for equality and for social progress and for bringing people together and I. Remember feeling that if more people had a voice to share their experiences, then maybe it could have gone differently and those early years shaped my belief but giving more people a voice, gives power to the powerless and pushes society to get better over time. The bigger story is that most progress in our lives actually comes from individuals having more of a voice.

A

So since then, I've focused on building services that do two things, give people a voice and bring people together, and these two simple ideas of voice and inclusion go hand in hand. Now some people believe that giving more people a voice is driving division rather than bringing people together.

A

More people across the spectrum believe that achieving the political outcomes that they think matter is more important than every person having a voice in being heard throughout history, we've seen how being able to use your voice, how people be able to use their voice helps people come together. The most repressive societies have always restricted speech.

A

The most and when people are finally able to speak, they often use their voice to call for change, and this year alone, people have used their voices to end multiple long-running dictatorships in northern Africa and we're already starting to hear from people whose voices had been excluded.

A

It's the small business on the corner that now has access to the same, sophisticated tools that only the big guys used to have access to so now you know they can get their voice out to reach customers, create more jobs in their town and become a social hub in their community, and you know people no longer have to rely on traditional gatekeepers in politics or media to make their voices heard and- and that has important consequences, how tech platforms have have centralized power, but I actually believe that a much bigger story is how much these platforms have decentralized power by putting it directly into people's hands.

A

It's it's part of this amazing expansion of voice that we have experienced through law and culture and now technology as well so giving people a voice and broader inclusion go hand-in-hand, and the trend has certainly been towards us getting much greater voice over time. I think that we need to consider the specific ways that the internet is different and how internet services like ours might address those risks, while still protecting free expression.

A

So perhaps the clearest difference with the internet is the now a lot more people have a voice in almost half of the world's population, and that is dramatically empowering for all the reasons that I've mentioned. But inevitably some people are going to use their voice to try to organize violence, to try to undermine elections, to to hurt others, and we have a responsibility to address these risks. Focusing on the authenticity of the speaker rather than trying to judge the content itself.

A

So the real issue is that it was posted by fake accounts that were coordinating together and being and pretending to be people that they were not so. The solution here is to verify the identities of anyone. Who's getting a wide amount of distribution and to get a lot better at identifying and taking down fake accounts.

A

So we now require you to provide a government ID and to prove your location if you want to run political ads or if you're gonna run a large page where voting is voice from a business perspective, and the controversy certainly is not worth the very small part of our business that they make up.

A

But political ads can be an important part of voice. You know, especially for local candidates and up and coming challengers and advocacy groups, and the media might not otherwise cover it's that way they can get their voice into the debate. Where you draw the line, we ban ads about health care or immigration or women's empowerment, and if you're not gonna ban those.

A

Does it really make sense to give everyone else a voice and political debates, except for the candidates themselves and I believe that in everything we do, we need to make sure that we empowering people and not simply reinforcing existing institutions and power structures. Are we gonna continue fighting to give more people a voice to be heard, or are we going to pull back from free expression?

A

I think that we should also be proactive and write policy that helps the values of voice and expression triumph around the world and I want to ensure that these values, a voice and free expression, are enshrined deeply into how this company is governed. I, don't think we need to lose our freedom of expression to realize how important it is. I think that people get it and and understand and appreciate the voice that they have now.

A

But part of this is because we're getting our issues out on the table, issues that, for a long time, weren't talked about enough more people from more parts of our society now have a voice than ever before, and it's going to take time to hear all these voices and knit them together into a coherent narrative. But the bigger story has always been regular people using their voice to take billions of individual steps forward to make all of our lives and our communities better.

A

I think we need to recognize what is at stake and come together to stand for voice and free expression at this critical moment, I believe in giving people a voice, because at the end of the day, I believe in people and as long as enough of us keep fighting for this I believe that more people's voices will eventually help us work through these issues together and write. A new chapter in our history were from all of our individual voices and perspectives. We can bring the world closer together.