After Facebook’s Scandals, Mark Zuckerberg Says He’ll Shift Focus to Private Sharing

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SAN FRANCISCO — The first era of social networking was predicated on people publicly sharing their status updates, photos and messages. The next era will be an almost 180-degree turn, focused on private and encrypted communications between users.

The change was signaled on Wednesday by Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook, the world’s largest social network and the owner of Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger. The Silicon Valley company rode public sharing to become one of the most valuable tech companies and now has 2.7 billion users around the globe.

But in an interview and blog post on Wednesday, Mr. Zuckerberg detailed plans to integrate Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger so that people can communicate privately and directly across networks. That entails a shift away from public sharing and an open platform, he said.

“We’re building a foundation for social communication aligned with the direction people increasingly care about: messaging each other privately,” he said in the interview. He added in his blog post that as he thinks about the future of the internet, “I believe a privacy-focused communications platform will become even more important than today’s open platforms.”

Mr. Zuckerberg said the public forums for communication popularized by Facebook will not go away. But he planned to spend the years ahead building systems and products that create a type of “digital living room” where people can expect their discussions to be private, ephemeral and encrypted from outsiders.

“Just as there are public spaces in the world, in our digital lives there will be the equivalence of these private spaces too,” he said.

The shift follows years of scandal for the social network. Facebook has been in the spotlight for its lax attitude toward the way it handles people’s data, as well as how foreign government agents have used the platform to spread disinformation. Regulators have intensified scrutiny of Facebook’s privacy practices, with the Federal Trade Commission considering a multibillion-dollar fine against the company for violating a 2011 privacy consent decree.

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