Mark Zuckerberg hit China’s model for the internet in a speech Thursday, saying that Facebook could not operate there without compromising its values.
“I wanted our services in China because I believe in connecting the whole world, and I thought maybe we could help creating a more open society,” Zuckerberg during a speech at Georgetown University.
“I worked hard on this for a long time, but we could never come to agreement on what it would take for us to operate there and they never let us in.”
{mosads}Zuckerberg spent a large portion of Thursday’s appearance defending Facebook as a vehicle for freedom of expression and expanding free speech.
He contrasted that view with China’s model, which he said has been stifling mentions of protests on Chinese apps.
He specifically mentioned TikTok, a video-sharing platform whose parent company ByteDance reportedly released guidelines recently effectively banning criticism of the Chinese government.
“Until recently, the internet in almost every country outside China has been defined by American platforms with strong free expression values,” he said. “But there’s no guarantee that these values will win out. A decade ago, almost all of the major internet platforms were American. Today, six of the top 10 are Chinese.”
Facebook had tried for years to break into the Chinese market, with Zuckerberg meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, but ultimately turned away from that effort in the last year.
Zuckerberg has positioned Facebook as a vehicle for American principles of freedom of expression, saying that taking stances on these issues will become increasingly important in a struggle for “the future of our global internet.”