(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / Getty Contributor)

Not a fan of Facebook's content policies? Well, don't expect the social network to overhaul them. On Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on Facebook's content moderation approach, citing the need to protect free speech for all.

"Whether you like Facebook or not, we need to recognize what is at stake and come together to stand for free expression at this critical moment," he said in a speech at Georgetown University.

Facebook has long faced criticism over how it does or does not police the content on its platform. Does banning a political pundit for making offensive remarks amount to censorship? Or does doing nothing risk letting misinformation and hate speech run wild at a time when US society, and the world, is growing more polarized.

Recently, Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden have even weighed in by blasting Facebook for letting President Donald Trump's campaign run political ads on the social network with false claims.

Facebook shouldn't be intimidated into allowing lies and propaganda to be promoted on their website—and no private company should have this much power in the first place. We need to #BreakUpBigTech. https://t.co/EwCPbaGpiB — Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 15, 2019

On Thursday, Zuckerberg acknowledged the problems. But he also pushed back on critics who've been demanding Facebook enforce tighter rules on content.

"Some people believe giving more people a voice is driving division rather than bringing us together," he said. "More people across the spectrum believe that achieving the political outcomes they think matter is more important than every person having a voice. I think that's dangerous." (A transcript of his full speech can be found here.)

Zuckerberg instead chose to frame the content-moderation challenges against the backdrop of history, pointing to the free speech debates that revolved around Martin Luther King Jr., the American civil rights movement and the protests during the Vietnam War. Ultimately, progress followed, despite calls by society to suppress free speech, he said.

"We can continue to stand for free expression, understanding its messiness, but believing that the long journey towards greater progress requires confronting ideas that challenge us. Or we can decide the cost is simply too great. I'm here today because I believe we must continue to stand for free expression," he added.

Okay, But Can We Talk About TikTok?

In the same speech, Zuckerberg took a surprise shot at China, a market to which Facebook has long sought access. The country has banned access to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, but Zuckerberg is now concerned that China will be able to export the country's strict online censorship standards across the globe through homegrown internet companies, which are even expanding into the US.

Specifically, Zuckerberg called out the social media app TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, as a potential threat to free speech. "While our services, like WhatsApp, are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world, mentions of these protests are censored, even in the US," he said.

"Is that the internet we want?" he then asked.

Not everyone will buy Zuckerberg's commitment to free speech. After all, his company is raking in billions by maintaining the status quo. But during a Q&A session after the speech, Facebook's CEO admitted the company is facing an uphill battle to win back trust.

"Right now, we are doing a very good job at making everyone angry at us," he said, referencing both conservatives and liberals who claim the company has a bias against them. (On Friday, Zuckerberg is slated to be interviewed on Fox News amid reports he's been holding private meetings with conservative pundits.)

In his defense, Zuckerberg said it isn't Facebook's role to police political speech. "While I worry about an erosion of truth, I don't think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100 percent true," he said.

On the question of political ads, Zuckerberg also addressed why Facebook is refraining from fact-checking the content. "We don't do this to help politicians, but because we think people should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.

"Even if we wanted to ban political ads, it's not clear where we'd draw the line," he added. "There are many more ads about issues than there are directly about elections. Would we ban all ads about healthcare or immigration or women's empowerment?"

As for how Facebook plans on fixing its problems, Zuckerberg's solution is to essentially hold steady, and continue with the company's current efforts to use human content moderators and AI to quickly take down rule-breaking content on the social network. To clarify the rules, Facebook is creating an independent oversight board made up of experts to appeal content takedown decisions.

Zuckerberg also pushed back on claims that social media itself is polarizing society. "I believe that more people's voices will eventually help us work through these issues together and write a new chapter in our history—where from all of our individual voices and perspectives, we can bring the world closer together," he said.

However, Zuckerberg's speech isn't sitting well with everyone. Bernice King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter, took issue with Facebook's CEO using her father to defend the company's stance on free speech when his social network has also been used to spread misinformation.

I heard #MarkZuckerberg's 'free expression' speech, in which he referenced my father. I'd like to help Facebook better understand the challenges #MLK faced from disinformation campaigns launched by politicians. These campaigns created an atmosphere for his assassination. pic.twitter.com/h97gvVmtSZ — Be A King (@BerniceKing) October 17, 2019

US Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) also claimed Facebook was only being critical of the Chinese government after it was denied access to the country's market.

Interesting. Now that Facebook is shut out of China, Zuck champions free speech. But he told me in our meeting when I asked about Chinese censorship that Facebook "always complies with local laws," and offered this as explanation for why FB was ready to censor in Chinese mkt https://t.co/s82oqWRV9N — Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) October 17, 2019

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with tweets from Bernice King and US Senator Josh Hawley.

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