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Aaron Sorkin , who won a screenwriting Oscar for “The Social Network” about the early rise of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook , has weighed in on the debate over the social giant’s policy to accept political advertising — regardless of whether it’s factual or not.
Sorkin’s message to Zuck: You’re wrong.
In an op-ed published Thursday in the New York Times , Sorkin wrote that he admires Zuckerberg’s “deep belief in free speech,” which is the justification the Facebook CEO has used for the hands-off policy on political advertising.But, Sorkin said, the Facebook decision to keep running ads for political campaigns is spreading outright lies that have a “dangerous effect on our elections.”
“[T]his can’t possibly be the outcome you and I want, to have crazy lies pumped into the water supply that corrupt the most important decisions we make together,” Sorkin wrote.“Lies that have a very real and incredibly dangerous effect on our elections and our lives and our children’s lives.”
Facebook’s service is currently running an ad, bought on behalf of Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, claiming that former VP Joe Biden gave the Ukrainian attorney general a $1 billion bribe to not investigate his son.“Every square inch of that is a lie and it’s under your logo,” Sorkin wrote in the op-ed.
“That’s not defending free speech, Mark, that’s assaulting truth.”
Zuckerberg, on Facebook’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday , admitted the political advertising policy was controversial even as he tried to downplay the business impact — claiming ads from political campaigns represent less than 0.5% of revenue.“This may lead to more investigations, and the candidates may criticize us,” he said.
The 2020 election year is shaping up to be “a very tough year” for the company, Zuckerberg added.
Those comments, and Facebook’s report of blockbuster Q3 financial results, came just minutes after Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that it would ban all political advertising effective Nov.22.“This isn’t about free expression,” Dorsey tweeted.“This is about paying for reach.” Dorsey took a swipe at Facebook’s position, saying, “it‘s not credible for us to say: ‘We’re working hard to stop people from gaming our systems to spread misleading info, buuut if someone pays us to target and force people to see their political ad…well…they can say whatever they want!’”
In his op-ed, Sorkin recounted Zuckerberg’s “public accusation that the movie was a lie” but said the screenwriter didn’t contest that because the screenplay for “The Social Network” was “vetted to within an inch of its life by a team of studio lawyers with one client and one goal: Don’t get sued by Mark Zuckerberg .”
Sorkin also recalled Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was invited to a preview screening of “The Social Network” and in the middle of the film turned to the producers in the room to ask, “How can you do this to a kid?”
Regarding Facebook’s ad policies, Sorkin wrote, “I hope your COO walks into your office, leans in (as she suggested we do in her best selling book), and says, ‘How can we do this to tens of millions of kids?’”
Zuckerberg has faced criticism from politicians including Biden, Sen.Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton but so far has repeatedly defended his stance.During a heated congressional hearing last week about Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency plans, Zuckerberg was asked about the political ad policy and said, “in most cases, in a democracy, I believe people should be able to see for themselves what politicians they may or may not vote for are saying and judge their character for themselves.” Popular on Variety .
