Facebook Urges Restoration of Global Internet Under Biden Presidency

Facebook has urged President-elect Joe Biden to make reinstating a “global internet” his top tech priority during his tenure.

Nick Clegg, former UK Deputy PM and now Head of Global Affairs at Facebook said that this fight for the future of the internet had been side-lined by three separate debates.

The US is focusing on whether big tech firms need to be broken up; Europe is obsessing over data sovereignty and privacy; and the Indian market is concerned about the security of platforms such as WhatsApp.

Speaking at the virtual Web Summit last week, Clegg focused his discussions on the censored internet in China, with Turkey, Vietnam, Russia, and Pakistan all attempting to emulate this system.

He said that Joe Biden needed to work urgently on finding common ground between the three to ensure the US had more say over “shaping future internet rules” rather than China.

The flood of alleged misinformation on Facebook was not discussed, despite the fact that the social network has just announced that it will act to remove misinformation about vaccines.

Earlier this week at the same conference, the President of the European Commission, Ursula van der Leyen, announced that tough new rules were coming which would force social networks to take down harmful or illegal content more swiftly in Europe.

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