EU Rejects Zuckerberg’s Stance On Regulating Facebook

European Union industry commissioner Thierry Breton rebuked Facebook’s proposed new internet rules Monday (Feb.17), saying it was Facebook‘s responsibility to adapt to the EU and not the other way around, according to Reuters.

Breton had a short meeting with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook chief executive, on Monday, and after that, Breton made the statement that it wasn’t the EU’s responsibility to meet Facebook’s demands. Zuckerberg had previously said he wanted to have a “good, wide-ranging” discussion with Breton per reports.

Breton, who is a former CEO for French telecoms provider Orange and French technology company Atos, is also expected to deliver a set of rules in two days that will rein in the tech giants and state-aided Chinese tech companies.

Breton said he’ll decide by the end of the year if he wants to adopt a set of stringent rules as a way for the EU to set out ironclad responsibilities for social media platforms and regulate them. In response to a discussion paper by Facebook that rejects intrusive regulations and suggested looser rules, Breton was not in favor, saying it was “not enough.”

He said that Facebook had failed to mention its own market dominance and that its rules had not set up any responsibilities.

EU justice chief Vera Jourova also met Zuckerberg and concurred with Breton that Facebook would have to make an effort to fight online harassment, hate speech and fake news. Jourova said Facebook couldn’t simply push away any responsibility.

Breton’s proposals will attempt to make use of the EU’s vast amount of data and to challenge Facebook and Google in terms of their dominance of the web. He also wants to tackle artificial intelligence, which the EU has deliberated on recently.

Zuckerberg this week offered his own idea for how to regulate Facebook, saying the company fit under neither the umbrella of a traditional news media outlet, nor a telecommunications company. He said any regulations should take this into account.