Mark Zuckerberg: ‘There are now a lot more division than ever before’ – CNET in Spanish

Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the ‘division’ that affects the world today.

James Martin/CNET

Mark Zuckerberg, ceo of Facebook, and Sheryl Sandberg, director general of operations, two of the most influential people in Silicon Valley, have not been shy to talk from the president, Donald Trump took over.

When Trump signed an executive order on January 27, which prohibits temporarily the immigration of seven predominantly muslim countries, Zuckerberg was one of the first executives of technology in responding with a post on your own page of Facebook. Sandberg, who initially was criticized by remain in silence, eventually followed with a missive on their page. On Wednesday, he spoke about the political climate during an interview during a conference.

earlier this week, also made reference to the recent tensions in the world, while meeting with a small group of users of Facebook invited to Menlo Park, California, headquarters of the company for what they termed as a “Friends Day”.

“This is a time in the world where there is more division than there has been in a while,” said Zuckerberg, Tuesday, during an event in which we saw him with his grey shirt and standard jeans. “That means connecting with friends and gathering groups is probably more important now than it has been, or has been in a long time.””

Facebook invited users from Groups from all over the world.

James Martin/CNET

What is so intimate was the scenario? The room was installed with about twenty chairs colorful set up in a circle, with Zuckerberg and Sandberg at different times leading the discussion. We invited six media, if only to see (we were not invited to ask questions during the debates).

For Friends Day, a meeting that celebrated the 13 year anniversary of Facebook on February 4, the company invited people all over the world that use Groups in Facebook to talk about what they are doing with the platform. Two men with legs amputated represented a support group for other amputees. Three attendees were from Girls Love Travel, a group that helps women organise your travel. Two women were from a group that tries to help people of color with mental illness. Another type there is a group for runners who collect the garbage on the way.

Sandberg, coo of Facebook, had a message similar to that of Zuckerberg.

“it’s Obviously a difficult time for our country and our world,” he said. “Things are feeling divided, scared, a lot of people feel that their voices are not being heard, and they are really afraid … I Think we all feel a little restless.”

But while the leaders of Facebook touched lightly on the topic of how divided is the world now, in recent months the social network has been accused of helping to stoke that division. After the presidential elections in the united States, was criticized on Facebook by creating the so-called “bubble filter”, making the people to have a distorted view of what was happening in the world. That’s because the biggest social network in the world has a news feed designed to show you things that will probably interest you, so the argument is that you’re probably seeing things that already align with your political views. (The Wall Street Journal has highlighted this division with a feature called the Blue Feed, Network Feed.)

Sheryl Sandberg heard the personal stories of its users.

James Martin/CNET

Facebook has been trying to address that problem. Last week, he made important changes in its feature “Trending Topics”. Instead of seeing a list of news stories tailored to your individual tastes, everyone will see the same set of items – a move that seems to be part of an effort to present to people with points of view more diverse.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Zuckerberg offered users Groups of Facebook in the room were part of the solution to the problem. “Part of this division is in all the world, is not only a us phenomenon,” said Zuckerberg. “Part of what we need to do as a world to unite is to build the type of communities that you are.”

Facebook Groups have more than a billion users around the world. During the elections in the USA one of the most successful was an alleged “secret group” on Facebook for Hillary Clinton called Pantsuit Nation. In the months since the election, that group has grown to have almost 4 million subscribers and has plans to even publish a book.

Zuckerberg also asked users of Facebook to what more they want from the platform of Groups. Some suggested the option of having sub-groups, so that the people within the groups to be able to subscribe to specific parts of the group. Other suggested integrations with third party services such as Skype.

Zuckerberg listened attentively to the comments, nodding and answering “Interesting”, once in a while.

“The construction of groups and communities is going to be one of the major approaches for the coming years,” he said. “The functionality is quite simple in comparison with what needs to be.”