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Mark Zuckerberg Takes On Donald Trump At #F8, Launches Messenger Platform — And A Facebook Plane!

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 05:55 PST, Apr 12, 2016

It takes courage to choose hope over fear. Those are words that Mark Zuckerberg used when he opened his keynote F8 Facebook speech for developers. Zuckerberg directly took on Donald Trump’s plans to build a wall separating Mexico from America when Mark spoke about the world getting smaller through technology, but also noted that he’d seen countries turn inward in his travels around the world.

Mark stated that talk of building walls was a fearful mindset that was sending thought processes in the wrong direction.

The F8 keynote speech revealed that Zuckerberg wants to use artificial intelligence technology and all realms of technology to make the world smaller, not bigger.

As such, Facebook has built a plane to connect sub-Saharan Africa to the internet. As reported by the Verge, Facebook’s solar-powered plane looks similar to a Stealth Bomber. He spoke of all the people around the planet who don’t have access to the internet — a fact that Zuckerberg is seeking to change.

Another way to take advantage of Facebook’s know-how is to use what is working and popular and expand the apps. Facebook Messenger just passed 900 million monthly users, so Zuckerberg also spoke of launching Messenger Platform, a way that publishers can directly send messages to users that want them via Facebook Messenger.

“CNN can send you a daily digest of stories via Facebook Messenger.”

Mark explained that Facebook Messenger users would also be able to use Messenger Platform to do simple tasks, such as instruct a business to order flowers and send them to a friend.

“Now, to order from 1-800-FLOWERS, you never have to call 1-800-FLOWERS again.”

In laying out the 10-year plan of Facebook, Zuckerberg covered a number of topics, from augmented reality to overlaying digital objects on top of that. The futuristic world of physical objects doesn’t feature physical TVs, but the process of being able to pull out an app and alter images to show to friend right then and there.

Mark also spoke of just how popular Facebook’s Live video option has become. It has become so popular with some celebrities that they get more views via Facebook Live than they do during their own TV shows. And just “regular folk” are finding Facebook Live working well as well. Mark said a woman commented on his Facebook post, telling him that she was able to stream her wedding live — especially important because health was an issue in that instance.

Zuckerberg also joked about how addicting watching certain videos can be, like when he got emotionally invested in watching a woman ski down a hill with her children via the Facebook Live video. Mark said that he kept watching the video, enthralled, wanting to make sure the kids got down the hill unscathed.

Mark also spoke of opening up the Live API to Facebook developers. There was a drone flying in from the back of the F8 conference room, flying around streaming F8 live video.

Zuckerberg spoke of reducing the amount of data usage and as such, has made available a free basics simulator, to see how your current services compare.

Another Facebook option called “Account Kit” lets people use it to sign in to apps without their passwords and usernames, but can simply use an email address to login to apps, even if they don’t have a Facebook account. Now Facebook developers can use “Account Kit” code to add to their apps to allow their users to login easily.

As the F8 conference was streamed live, Mark Zuckerberg trended on Twitter, with more than 10,000 tweets coming in to the social networking platform.

[AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein]

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