Mark Zuckerberg supports Apple in fight against US government

Facebook was long accused of brushing aside users’ privacy concerns, and although Zuckerberg has strived to win back trust with a flurry of features, the social network is still in the eye of the storm.

“VR is the next platform where anyone can create and experience anything they want”, Zuckerberg said. “If there’s any content that’s promoting terrorism or sympathizing with ISIS or anything like that”, said Zuckerberg, “we’ll… get those people off the service”. I’ve seen smartphones and devices. He said 1 million people were already sharing 360-degree video on Facebook each day and that this number would only grow.

This will all be made possible thanks to a new partnership between Facebook (via Oculus) and Samsung.

“Hopefully in the next year or so, we’ll be able to incorporate this into what we come and talk to our operator partners about, to help extend all the networks to regions where it might not have been previously economical to build out traditional terrestrial networks”, Zuckerberg said. “It’s still really early”.

The social network’s CEO waxed lyrical about VR’s ability to let users look and move around any environment, and to live and share exceptional experiences (like surfing, parachute jumping, exploring the surface of Mars, etc.). However, there’s still work that needs to be done. He stated on Monday that he was “sympathetic”, to Cook’s concerns, and Facebook issued a statement last week saying it would “aggressively”, protect the security of its systems.

Such take-up is only likely to increase following Samsung’s decision to offer the headset for free with pre-orders of the Galaxy S7 registered before March 18 this year.

“Scaling traditional telecom infrastructure to meet this global data challenge is not moving as fast as people need” Jay Parikh Facebook’s head of engineering said in a blog post. “But we’re encouraged by our progress to date, and we’re excited to continue building VR technology that gives people new ways to connect and share”.

Mark Zuckerberg on Monday threw his support behind Apple in its bitter battle with the United States government over attempts to gain access to information protected by the company’s sophisticated encryption technology. In India, one of the company’s largest markets, the country’s national regulators this month banned free mobile data programs that favour some internet services over others. But Facebook says it’s encouraged by its progress to date, and according to Zuckerberg, will remain committed to the VR platform for the long term.