Zuck says ad transparency regulation would be “very good if it’s done well”

Despite Facebook’s effort to rapidly self-regulate in the wake of Russian interference in the US election using Facebook ads, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he would support government regulation if implemented properly.

“We’re working with congress on legislation to make advertising more transparent. I think this would be very good if it’s done well” Zuckerberg said on Facebook’s Q3 2017 earnings call. “And even without legistialstion, we’re already moving forward on our own to bring advertising on Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency than ads on TV or other media.”

That comes after Zuckerberg opened wrote in today’s earnings release that “We’re serious about preventing abuse on our platforms. We’re investing so much in security that it will impact our profitability. Protecting our community is more important than maximizing our profits.”

Specifically, CFO David Wehner says Facebook plans for expenses to grow 45 % to 60% in 2018 as Facebook invests in better security to thwart Russian election attackers, more content for its Watch tab of original video, and research for its long-term bets on artificial intelligence, Oculus, and augmented reality.

COO Sheryl Sandberg said Facebook will stand by its policy of allowing issue-related ads to be served because of its support for free speech, but she said the company wants to elevate the quality of discourse on the platform.

Wehner admits that Facebook has increased its estimation of false accounts from 1% last quarter to 2% to 3% this quarter. That’s in part because Facebook said it started using a new technology to calculate these estimates, and because of a spike in false account creation in Vietnam and Indonesia. Facebook said the new estimation technology is also why it now pegs duplicate accounts at 10% of monthly active users, versus 6% last quarter.

Overall, given Zuckerberg’s comments and its expense estimate increase, Facebook seems to be taking the Russian security and ad transparency issues extremely seriously. Though it might seem like this is a prioritization of security over profits, long-term Facebook must be a safe platform for legitimate discussion to maintain it’s place atop the hill of social networks.

Published at Wed, 01 Nov 2017 21:11:50 +0000