SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday that Facebook's critics are simply being too "negative" about changes the company has brought about.

"As networks of people replace traditional hierarchies and reshape many institutions in our society -- from government to business to media to communities and more -- there is a tendency of some people to lament this change, to overly emphasize the negative," Zukerberg said in a note marking the company's 15th anniversary.

For more than a year, Facebook has been struggling to handle problems plaguing the world's largest media network, including accusations of the company's failure to protect its user data from allegedly being used to influence the U.S. 2016 presidential elections, presence of hatred and extremist speeches on the platform, and the leakage of user privacy in hacking attacks.

He said some people, in some cases, went so far as to describe the "shift to empowering people in the ways the internet and these networks do" as mostly harmful to society.

He argued that any rapid social change creates uncertainty and people are having more power, with a long term trend reshaping society to be more open and accountable over time.

"The last 15 years were about people building these new networks and starting to see their impact, then the next 15 years will be about people using their power to remake society," said Zuckerberg.

The Facebook CEO recounted in the note his "dorm room decision" to launch "a simple website organized around people," which has now grown into a global giant with more than 2 billion active users.

Zuckerberg's net worth has exploded to more than 60 billion U.S. dollars, making him one of the richest billionaires in the world.

Zuckerberg created Facebook on Feb. 4, 2004, in Harvard University and within a month of the launch, half of Harvard students became Facebook members.