Facebook Inc. had a stellar 2017 when it came to revenue, but the company’s public image was not so lucky, especially after it revealed that it unwittingly sold political ads to a Russia-backed organization. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg admitted today that the Facebook is struggling with its fair share of issues, which is why he has decided to make fixing these issues his personal challenge for 2018.

Zuckerberg said that he started posting his personal challenges to Facebook in 2009 when “the economy was in a deep recession and Facebook was not yet profitable.” His goal that year was to turn Facebook into a sustainable business, so he ditched his trademark gray T-shirt and wore a tie for the entire year to remain focused on that goal.

Zuckerberg admitted that this year the company is once again in a troubled position, saying:

Today feels a lot like that first year. The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do — whether it’s 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.

My personal challenge for 2018 is to focus on fixing these important issues. 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.

This may not seem like a personal challenge on its face, but I think I’ll learn more by focusing intensely on these issues than I would by doing something completely separate. These issues touch on questions of history, civics, political philosophy, media, government, and of course technology.  I’m looking forward to bringing groups of experts together to discuss and help work through these topics.

Zuckerberg said he will also explore “decentralizing” technologies such as encryption and cryptocurrency, but he claimed that these technologies also “come with the risk of being harder to control.”

Most of Facebook’s more serious problems are too complicated to be solved in a year, and the company has found itself caught in the middle of multiple opposing forces. For example, several governments want greater access to Facebook’s user data for law enforcement purposes, but privacy advocates and many users want the social network to do more to safeguard personal data.

Zuckerberg has a good track record on his previous personal challenges, which have included learning Mandarin and decking out his house with artificial intelligence, but the CEO may find his goal for 2018 a lot harder to accomplish.

Photo: Facebook