Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg, as the CEO and controlling shareholder of Meta Platforms, whose platforms include Facebook, has repeatedly asserted that achieving absolute perfection in content moderation is impossible given the scale of the user base. In a taped deposition, he stated that with billions of people using the services, an unfortunate reality is that a very small percentage will be criminals, and the company must focus on working hard to prevent that activity. This perspective frames the ongoing safety challenges, such as harms to children, not as a failure to meet an achievable standard, but as an inherent characteristic of operating a massive global service.

His stance has evolved in response to regulatory and legal scrutiny, including a trial in New Mexico alleging that Meta prioritized profits over child safety. He has also defended decisions regarding platform features, such as authorizing end-to-end encryption for Messenger despite warnings from child safety advocates. This position suggests a prioritization of user desire for privacy over the absolute ability to monitor all user interactions, acknowledging responsibility while maintaining that preventing all bad outcomes is an unattainable goal.