Although Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended his company’s position on political advertisement in a free speech address, presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren claims the platform is helping Trump spread lies and misinformation for profit.
Senator Warren, who remains a favorite to take on Trump next year, has continually claimed that Mark Zuckerberg is “unprepared to handle” the presidential election in 2020 – arguing that he hasn’t learned much from 2016.
Warren’s remarks came following the Facebook CEO’s appearance at Georgetown University where he said that the ban of political advertisements on the platform was considered, but ultimately the company decided to reject the idea.
“I don’t think it’s right for a private company to censor politicians in a democracy,” Zuckerberg said.
Newsweek reported that, following the address, Warren was quick to slam the remarks on Twitter, maintaining the criticism of Facebook and Zuckerberg that has been consistent throughout her campaign.
“Mark Zuckerberg’s speech today shows how little he learned from 2016, and how unprepared Facebook is to handle the 2020 election,” Warren said.
“Facebook had a policy that didn’t permit misinformation in any ads. Facebook built relationships with independent fact-checkers, so they weren’t the sole deciders of what was or wasn’t a lie. But Facebook undermined those relationships and excluded political ads from that policy,” Warren continued. “Here’s the thing, Mark. Trump isn’t just posting a lie on his own page for his own followers. Facebook is accepting millions of dollars from Trump to run political ads, including ones with misinformation and outright lies. Ads that TV stations won’t even run. Facebook is actively helping Trump spread lies and misinformation. Facebook already helped elect Donald Trump once. They might do it again—and profit off of it.”
Warren is one of numerous voices critical of Zuckerberg at present after Facebook rejected a request from Joe Biden’s presidential campaign to remove an advert from Trump’s re-election campaign that contained misleading information earlier this month.
She even went as far as creating her own misleading ads that stated Zuckerberg has endorsed Trump for president.
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