Mark Zuckerberg offered fresh self-criticism Monday, acknowledging making numerous mistakes in building the world's biggest social network as Facebook marked its 14th birthday.

"Over the years, I've made almost every mistake you can imagine," the Facebook co-founder said on his personal page.

"I've made dozens of technical errors and bad deals. I've trusted the wrong people and I've put talented people in the wrong roles. I've missed important trends and I've been slow to others. I've launched product after product that failed."

The post, a reflection of the 14 years since Zuckerberg launched Facebook as a Harvard student, was the latest to acknowledge problems in the social network that has grown to some two billion users but has also been criticized for enabling misinformation and manipulation.

In recent weeks, Facebook has unveiled steps to refocus on family and friends, even if that means people spend less time on the network.

Monday's post suggested a continual re-evaluation of how Facebook works.

"The reason our community exists today is not because we avoided mistakes," Zuckerberg wrote.

"It's because we believe what we're doing matters enough to keep trying to solve our greatest challenges -- knowing full well that we'll fail again and again, but that it's the only way to make progress."

YouTube labels state-sponsored news as rules tighten
San Francisco (AFP) Feb 2, 2018 - YouTube on Friday began labeling news broadcasts that get government money as it vowed to be stricter about content at the globally popular online video-sharing service.

A feature being rolled out in the US displays notices below videos uploaded by news broadcasters which receive government or public money, according to a blog post by YouTube News senior product manager Geoff Samek.

"Our goal is to equip users with additional information to help them better understand the sources of news content that they choose to watch on YouTube," Samek said

"News is an important vertical for us and we want to be sure to get it right."

The move is likely to affect videos from services such as Russia-backed RT, which critics call a propaganda outlet for Moscow, but others as well.

The blog post included a screen shot with a disclaimer about the US government-funded Radio Free Asia. The flagging may also apply to state-chartered news organizations such as the BBC and AFP, and US-based public broadcasters.

Notices displayed with state-sponsored news broadcasts will include links to Wikipedia online encyclopedia so viewers can find out more about agencies behind the reports, according to Samek.

The feature is nascent and will be refined based on feedback from users.

YouTube made a series of changes last year intended to "better surface authoritative news," according to Samek.

YouTube priorities for this year include tightening and better enforcing rules at the service, according to chief executive Susan Wojcicki.

"The same creativity and unpredictability that makes YouTube so rewarding can also lead to unfortunate events where we need to take a clear, informed, and principled stance," Wojcicki said in an online post.

"We realize we have a serious social responsibility to get these emerging policy issues right."

Solutions being worked on include enhanced software smarts and more human review of videos uploaded to YouTube, according to Wojcicki.

The number of workers at YouTube and Google focused on content that might violate policies was to increase to more than 10,000.

"We're also currently developing policies that would lead to consequences if a creator does something egregious that causes significant harm to our community as a whole," Wojcicki said.

YouTube last month announced ramped-up rules regarding when it will run ads with videos as it scrambled to quell concerns by brands about being paired with troublesome content.

YouTube late last year pulled 150,000 videos of children after lewd comments about them were posted by viewers.

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Facebook shares swing as changes trim time spent by users
San Francisco (AFP) Feb 1, 2018
Facebook on Wednesday reported earnings that beat expectations, but shares swung as it stressed the goal of prioritizing personal interactions among users over the time they spend on the world's biggest social network. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg said changes cut time spent on the site by some 50 million hours per day, but its chief operating officer argued that having users engage more with friends' posts could lead to further financial opportunities for the company. "Helping people con ... read more