Every year, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes on a personal challenge. Previous examples include learning Mandarin, reading more books, and meeting people in all 50 of the United States of America. And for 2018, Mark Zuckerberg has promised to fix Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg has, for better or worse, become the public face of the internet. Partly because Facebook is so ubiquitous, and partly because he seems to enjoy spending time in the public eye. Unfortunately, Facebook didn't have the best 2017, so for 2018 Zuckerberg is focusing on work.

Mark Zuckerberg Wants to Fix Facebook

Zuckerberg outlines his ambition in a Facebook post, stating that he wants to fix the "important issues". Which means "protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is time well spent."

The Facebook CEO isn't promising to fix everything overnight, admitting, "We won't prevent all mistakes or abuse, but we currently make too many errors enforcing our policies and preventing misuse of our tools. If we're successful this year then we'll end 2018 on a much better trajectory."

Zuckerberg ends the post by pitching "centralization vs decentralization". He cites "encryption and cryptocurrency" as two specific ways in which power is being taken from "centralized systems and put it back into people's hands". Which probably means the Zuckercoin will soon be a thing.

As others have pointed out, fixing Facebook and the various issues it's facing, is literally Mark Zuckerberg's job. Sure, he's entitled to swan around the country spreading his gospel to anyone who will listen, but being the CEO of Facebook, and all that entails, should be his priority.

Facebook Is Seen as Old and Crusty

Despite its formidable size and power, Facebook is facing some tough challenges. There's the proliferation of fake news and political influence by foreign powers, as already mentioned. But there's also the fact that Facebook is seen as outdated compared to Snapchat and Instagram.

What do you think of Mark Zuckerberg's personal challenge for 2018? Is this just him promising to actually do his job? Or is he right to make fixing Facebook his number one priority? What's the first thing you would do to fix Facebook? Please let us know in the comments below!

Image Credit: Surian Soosay via Flickr