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FACEBOOK boss Mark Zuckerberg has sensationally admitted the site should be regulated.

The social networks billionaire founder and chief executive said there is a need for governments and watchdogs to have “a more active role”.

 Mark Zuckerberg has sensationally admitted that the social media site, Facebook, should be regulated
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Mark Zuckerberg has sensationally admitted that the social media site, Facebook, should be regulatedCredit: Getty - Contributor

It follows the live-streaming on social media of the Christchurch terror attack in New Zealand, which was viewed 4,000 times before being removed.

Mr Zuckerberg, 34, said he believes new regulation is needed in four areas across the internet — harmful content, election integrity, privacy and “data portability”.

In a hard-hitting statement published by the Washington Post and on his own Facebook page, he said: “Every day we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, and how to prevent sophisticated cyber attacks.

But if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn’t ask companies to make these judgments alone. I believe we need a more active role for governments and regulators.”

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“By updating the rules for the internet, we can preserve what’s best about it — the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things — while also protecting society from broader harms.”

Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook, which has two billion monthly users, will review harmful content but added that “at our scale we’ll always make mistakes and decisions that people disagree with”.

The UK is due to publish plans on clamping down on the likes of Twitter and Instagram if they breach duty of care standards.

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