"A lot of today's biggest opportunities will come from bringing people together - whether that is spreading prosperity or freedom, or accelerating science, or promoting peace and understanding." Mr Zuckerberg said: "A lot of challenges we face today are also entirely global - fighting climate change or ending terrorism, or ending pandemics, or when a civil war in one country leads to a refugee crisis across different continents. "When I started Facebook, the mission of connecting the world was not controversial," he told me. "It was as if it was a default assumption that people had; every year the world got more connected and that seems like the direction things were heading in. Losing hope 
 
 He told the BBC: "There are people around the world that feel left behind by globalisation and the rapid changes that have happened, and there are movements as a result to withdraw from some of that global connection." There are questions about whether we can make a global community that works for everyone, and whether the path ahead is to connect more or reverse course. "If you are upset about the direction things are going in, I hope you don't just sit around and be upset, but you feel urgent about building the long term infrastructure that needs to get built," Mr Zuckerberg said. "If people are asking the question, is the direction for humanity to come together more or not? Facebook is a work in progress, and we are dedicated to learning and improving. "I am not doing that now, it's not the plan," he said. "The thing that I will say is that a lot of folks will look at this through the lens of one or two events, and I really do think this is a broader trend. To prevent harm, we can build social infrastructure to help our community identify problems before they happen. "We need to be help build those communities and that is what I am trying to do in my personal philanthropy - setting an example hopefully for other entrepreneurs who will build things in the future for how you should give back to the community and to the world. In a call to action, he said people must not "sit around and be upset", but act to build "social infrastructures". "You can talk to him, you can look at what he has said to get a sense of that. "And I think it is our responsibility to amplify the good effects and mitigate the negative ones so we can create a community that has a common understanding 
 
 "There is a lot of research that shows we have the best discourse when we connect as whole people rather than just opinions. The two most discussed concerns this past year were about diversity of viewpoints we see (filter bubbles) and accuracy of information (fake news). Freedom of opinion 
 
 "Accuracy of information is very important," he said in the 5,500-word letter, published on Thursday. We know there is misinformation and even outright hoax content on Facebook, and we take this very seriously. "We've made progress fighting hoaxes the way we fight spam, but we have more work to do. "We are proceeding carefully because there is not always a clear line between hoaxes, satire and opinion." But Mr Zuckerberg added: "In a free society, it's important that people have the power to share their opinion, even if others think they're wrong. "Our approach will focus less on banning misinformation, and more on surfacing additional perspectives and information, including that fact checkers dispute an item's accuracy." And he admitted that social media - which deals in short, often aggressive, messages - had been part of the problem. At its best, this focuses messages and exposes people to different ideas. "In some places [it] could over simplify important and complex topics and may push us to have over simplified opinions of them," Mr Zuckerberg said. "If I get to know you on the values that we have in common or even the interests that we share it is a lot easier to have a debate about something that we disagree about productively than if we just meet and go head to head on something without understanding our common humanity." In India, Prime Minister Modi has asked his ministers to share their meetings and information on Facebook so they can hear direct feedback from citizens. "All these different kinds of institutions, whether they are governments, or non-profits, or companies, need to do their part in building this infrastructure to empower people so that it creates opportunities for everyone, not just some people. When we connect, we can engage directly in comments and messages. Sometimes people must speak out and demonstrate for what they believe is right. There are a few reasons for the increase in issues we've seen: cultural norms are shifting, cultures are different around the world, and people are sensitive to different things. Second, our community spans many countries and cultures, and the norms are different in each region. This is an important time in the development of our global community, and it's a time when many of us around the world are reflecting on how we can have the most positive impact. Could he imagine himself going into politics? "For a couple of decades, may be longer, people have really sold this idea that as the world comes together everything is going to get better," he said. Global challenges 
 
 I asked him whether he felt President Trump agreed with his view that "bringing people together" and "connecting the world" would lead to greater progress.  Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed: Mark Zuckerberg says there are threats to "common understanding" 
 
 Mark Zuckerberg has revealed deep-seated concerns that the tide is turning against globalisation.
– Welcome to 2017, when toasters have internet access, taxis drive themselves, and social media sites issue manifestos. Mark Zuckerberg set out his 5,500-word vision for the future in a Facebook post Thursday, setting out his plans to build "social infrastructure" that can help the world deal with issues such as climate change and terrorism, the Wall Street Journal reports. Zuckerberg tells the BBC that Facebook's mission of connecting the world has become more controversial in recent years, and while he still believes in building a global community, it must involve helping those who feel they've been left behind by globalization. Some key points from the manifesto: Facebook's next step. "For the past decade, Facebook has focused on connecting friends and families," Zuckerberg writes. "With that foundation, our next focus will be developing the social infrastructure for community—for supporting us, for keeping us safe, for informing us, for civic engagement, and for inclusion of all." "Meaningful communities." Zuckerberg says he wants Facebook to do more to help people connect with "meaningful communities" both online and offline, citing examples including the Black Fathers group. Safety measures. Facebook plans to build more infrastructure like its Safety Check, which helps people let others know they're safe during an emergency, and to help the community identify threats. "Right now, we're starting to explore ways to use AI to tell the difference between news stories about terrorism and actual terrorist propaganda so we can quickly remove anyone trying to use our services to recruit for a terrorist organization," Zuckerberg writes. "Fake news." Zuckerberg says he wants to reduce sensationalism and polarization by making sure people see a range of viewpoints. "Our approach will focus less on banning misinformation, and more on surfacing additional perspectives and information, including that fact checkers dispute an item's accuracy," he writes. Civic engagement. "Just as TV became the primary medium for civic communication in the 1960s, social media is becoming this in the 21st century," Zuckerberg writes, setting out plans to boost civic engagement and help hundreds of millions of people around the world register to vote. Community standards. Zuckerberg makes it clear that he was stung by criticism of the site for taking down controversial material. He says since standards vary between users and between societies, people will be allowed to have their own settings, and "content will only be taken down if it is more objectionable than the most permissive options allow." "History has had many moments like today," Zuckerberg writes in conclusion. "As we've made our great leaps from tribes to cities to nations, we have always had to build social infrastructure like communities, media and governments for us to thrive and reach the next level ... We have done it before and we will do it again." He closes with a quote from Abraham Lincoln: "We can succeed only by concert. It is not 'can any of us imagine better?' but, 'can we all do better?' The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, act anew."