“I’m Very Concerned” — Mark Zuckerberg On Threats Made Against Him by ISIS

Mark Zuckerberg has opened up about the recent threats issued to him by ISIS supporters last week. In the 25-minute long video, ISIS threatened to take down Facebook and Twitter, as well as their CEOs. Spotted by the deep web analysts from Vocative, this video was seen as a response to the recent efforts made by the social media companies to curb the online activities of ISIS.

Talking to Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of German media giant Axel Springer, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said, “I am very concerned but not because of the video. There have been worse threats.”

In the wide-ranging interview, he went to tell how he faced threats from an extremist in Pakistan. He tried to get the Facebook founder sentenced to death because the company didn’t want to take down a group in which people were encouraged to draw pictures of the Prophet Muhammad. For those who don’t know, this act is illegal in Pakistan.

“The Pakistani government asked us to remove the content world, what we did, of course,” Zuckerberg said. 

During his interview, Zuckerberg saw a common theme in both the threats and said that Facebook is here for giving people a voice and spreading ideas and rationalism.

In recent times, the extremist forces have started using social media as their major tool to gain supporters and spread the propaganda. To counterattack their activities, social media websites are taking steps like banning Facebook groups and pages that spread hate speech. Earlier this month, Twitter alone suspended 125,000 accounts that were accused of being associated with ISIS.

“Our North Star is that we want to give the most voice possible to the most people,” Zuckerberg said in the interview. “We work closely with governments and local organizations to be certain we are applying [standards] appropriately for local conditions and to identify and remove hateful or threatening content.”

What are your views regarding Mark Zuckerberg’s stance? Tell us your views in the comments below.

Also read: Google Wants To Keep ISIS Away From The Open Web, Urges Companies To Pick Up The Fight