Facebook's Zuckerberg plans public debates for 2019

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Facebook Inc Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday he will host a series of public discussions about the future of technology in society as part of his personal challenge this year.

Zuckerberg announced his plan in a Facebook post, which has been a regular feature of his New Year's resolutions.

"Every few weeks I'll talk with leaders, experts, and people in our community from different fields and I'll try different formats to keep it interesting. These will all be public, either on my Facebook or Instagram pages or on other media," said Zuckerberg.

Past two years were uneven for this tech giant. Its reputation ruined due to a data scandal involved with a British political consulting firm last year, putting the social network under tight scrutiny across the globe.

As part of those efforts, Facebook stepped up its fact-checking efforts, took down suspicious pages and accounts, improved its systems for identifying fake accounts. However, it still faces criticism from regulators and lawmakers for not doing enough.

The goal he set for 2018 is to fix Facebook by protecting Facebook users from abuse, defending against interference by nation-states and "making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent."

"This may not seem like a personal challenge on its face, but I think I'll learn more by focusing intensely on these issues than I would by doing something completely separate," Zuckerberg wrote.

In 2017, Zuckerberg testified before Congress about Russian election meddling using its platform and drew harsh criticism from early employees and investors about its role in the world. He admitted personally that they "currently make too many errors."

The CEO had New Year's tradition for almost 10 years. Every year, he would take on a personal challenge to learn something new, like building an AI for his home, running 365 miles, visiting every U.S. state, reading 25 books, and learning Mandarin.

(With inputs from Reuters)