by Facebook remains one of the most influential pieces of technology in the world, an expert said, despite recent scandals, pressure from rivals and other issues it faces as it celebrates its 20th anniversary.
Founded by a group including chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dormitory in 2004, it has grown to become one of the world’s largest technology companies as Meta – the parent company of Facebook and its sister apps Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Over the past 20 years, Facebook has helped usher in the social media era as a communication space, content creation outlet and news source, but it has also been at the center of major scandals, including the Cambridge Analytica data breach, as well as expansion. concerns about the impact of the internet, and in particular social media, on the health and well-being, mental health of younger users, and the foundations of democracy.
Despite this, Facebook has proven to be strong – just last week it reported its best financial results in recent memory with revenue rising 25%.
That good news came even as the company and Zuckerberg stepped into the spotlight over the site’s negative impact – a grim appearance for the billionaire before US Congress saw him confront the families of children who died after being harmed online. apologizing to them. One senator labeled Facebook a product that is “killing people”, and accused tech platforms of failing to protect young people.
Amidst the scandals, social media expert Drew Benvie says it can be easy to forget how transformative Facebook is to the modern world.
“Mark Zuckerberg, with his hunger for success, fame, transformation and democratization of everything, really ushered in a whole new era of information and entertainment,” he told the PA news agency.
“We should not forget the influence that Facebook has now, through its parent company Meta and its affiliates – Instagram, WhatsApp and others it has absorbed along the way.
“One of Meta’s platforms has over three billion monthly users – that’s two-thirds of the world connected to the internet – and whether it’s messaging, scrolling stories, local community groups, elections, shopping, entertainment or keeping in touch, change is the story has come full circle. world.”
Despite the apparent threats to the platform from regulators and indeed rival platforms, Mr Benvie believes the social network is not going anywhere anytime soon.
“I think we have another 20 years ahead of us. I think what Zuckerberg has done and what he plans to do, mainly because of investments in messaging, entertainment, and then the newest move, which is building AI that will power the future of Meta, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.
“I think there’s still a lot of life in the old dog,” he said, noting that how the company responds to the changing regulatory landscape will determine its future.
“I think the upcoming regulation will also be a big part of Facebook’s future, because no one wants to feel unhappy, sick or harmed because of the ease and speed with which information travels. the social media.
“For that reason, social networks have a lot to answer for and I think there is a lot of responsibility to be put on their shoulders in the future as well, mainly on the biggest apps, such as Facebook and its family of apps.
“The rough direction of travel is that the social networks are cracking down (on harmful content) as much as possible.”
He added that another key aspect of the platform’s future will be artificial intelligence (AI) – an area Meta has already started investing in and last year announced its first chatbots built using its own Llarma language model.
Mr Benvie said it is not this application of AI, but how Meta uses it more broadly that could define the next two decades.
“That moderation is more the work of technology and not human moderators, so that’s where I think AI will play a big role in the future of Meta,” he said.
“In the future, AI will help detect content that shouldn’t be there and help remove it faster, and it will do other great things for social media. It will give users tools and technologies they didn’t have before.
“I think AI will do a lot to keep people safer online and it will also improve people’s social media experiences, if done the right way. So I think that’s something to look forward to.
“AI is a huge space to look at and it’s not just a social media thing either, it’s in every field of work, so Meta could expand well beyond social media if he gets the right AI, so it’s definitely someone else. watch.”
However, one area of innovation that Mr Benvie said has so far been “a bit of a mistake” is the firm’s investment in the metaverse.
The social media expert said he believed the company was “simply too quick to innovate” and would be better off waiting for interest in the technology to grow.
Zuckerberg pledged billions of dollars and rebranded the company to launch his metaverse project, a 3D mixed reality space he said he believes is the future of the internet, but which does not yet exist as a tangible space or platform.
Despite his aggressive approach to the metaverse, Mr. Benvie said he could see Zuckerberg following the example of other high-profile tech founders and stepping back from day-to-day management at some point.
“Maybe we’ll see Mark Zuckerberg take a step back, a little bit like we’ve seen from the founders of other innovative technologies in the social media space – I’m thinking of Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google, Bill Gates at Microsoft – they’re influential still – Mark Zuckerberg would probably still have a lot of influence, but he’ll get to a point where we see his other interests take over,” he said.
Whether Zuckerberg is at the helm or not, however, Mr Benvie said Facebook and Meta’s handling of looming regulation – including the UK’s Online Safety Act – would be critical to its performance in the coming years. come.
“Every social network is looking for ways to make their platforms as sticky as possible – they want people to stay online longer,” he said.
“There’s a cost to that and unfortunately we’ve seen problems from mental health issues to real harm to all kinds of negative activities that social networks have facilitated. They are working hard to stop that but they can work harder.
“No one organization is to blame, and everyone is working to improve it, especially for young people, who are growing up in a world that is different from Mark Zuckerberg or the regulators too, where it is usually be on the screen as well. as often as you can be, which adds health risks and also creates opportunities.
“I think balancing those things is going to be critical to the future of Facebook, Meta and social media as well.”
