The journalism world will be watching today at 10 a.m. PST as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose to deliver the keynote for the company’s annual developer conference.
The conference has become appointment viewing for media types in recent years, as Facebook’s massive reach gives it enormous power over the publishing strategies and business decisions of news organizations around the world. Here’s what to expect from this year’s conference.
Per Wired, Zuckerberg and his colleagues plan to address the spread of misinformation on Facebook:
As Zuck And Friends continue grappling with Facebook’s role in the distribution of information online, you can bet they’ll talk all about company’s plans to combat fake news, curb the sharing of hate speech and violent videos, promote news literacy, improve its tools for verifying people and stories, stop revenge porn, keep users safe from surveillance, and more.
Zuckerberg will likely expound upon his lengthy manifesto on connectivity released earlier this year (which mentioned the news industry), according to Recode:
It’s likely he’ll expand on the lengthy manifesto that he published in February, where he outlined his vision for Facebook to help better the world and not just serve as a technology layer to connect it.
The company is also expected to unveil an augmented reality feature for the smartphone camera, breaking into (another) category that competitor Snapchat has already begun cultivating. Here’s USA Today:
Think Pokemon Go but on steroids. We will wander not one, but two worlds — the physical and the digital — wearing glasses or contact lenses that can summon information about the street we are walking on or the restaurant we are eating in or let us manipulate digital objects that feel real but aren’t really there.
And expect some kind of news related to Facebook’s Messenger platform, including group chatbots, according to TechCrunch:
Facebook is already working with top chatbot makers to prepare for the launch. Facebook will open up APIs to allow more developers to start building group bots, too. When asked for comment, a Facebook spokesperson said “we don’t comment on rumors or speculation,” but my sources confirm this is coming.
You can watch the conference here and take a look at the schedule here.
