The biggest misunderstanding about Facebook, according to one of its top execs

As Facebook’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Nicola Mendelsohn often has to dispel myths about the world’s biggest social networking platform.

Speaking on Yahoo Finance UK’s Global Change Agents with Lianna Brinded show, Mendelsohn said one of the biggest misunderstandings is to do with the type of content people expect Facebook is surfacing on the news feed.

Watch the full Nicola Mendelsohn Global Change Agents interview here

“If you don’t use Facebook, you’d think that if you opened it, it would be filled with all the worst things of humanity,” Mendelsohn said.

“I would say that’s really not true. If you speak to the very vast majority of people that are checking in and coming on to the platform every day, they are connecting with their friends, they are connecting with their families, they are seeing pictures of newborn babies, and marriages, and football teams, and whatever it is that that individual person loves — that’s what’s amazing about the platform.”

Mendelsohn was also asked about the often-circulated theory that Facebook is secretly listening to users’ conversations through the microphone in their phones in order to target them with ads.

“That’s a great big no. We are not,” Mendelsohn responded.

Global Change Agents with Lianna Brinded explores the stories of some of the most inspirational women across business, tech, and academia. Catch up on all the latest episodes here.

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