Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was widely mocked on social media Wednesday night for how he performed earlier in the day while being questioned by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over Facebook’s political ads policies.” data-reactid=”18″>Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was widely mocked on social media Wednesday night for how he performed earlier in the day while being questioned by New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over Facebook’s political ads policies.Zuckerberg appeared before the House Financial Services Committee to discuss Facebook’s new crypto-currency, Libra , but during the session, members of the committee also questioned Zuckerberg about other troubling Facebook issues.Including AOC, who used her turn to bring up the social media giant’s policy of not removing political ads containing lies or fact-checking politicians , leading to a conversation that frequently appeared to fluster the Facebook CEO.What followed was an exchange in which Zuckerberg became visibly more flustered as she drilled down.
It began when AOC asked Zuckerberg outright if she’d be able to tell lies about her political opponents, and after some qualifying, he said “probably.” Also Read: Facebook Makes a Return to News Distribution With a Curated ‘News Tab’ Launching Friday “You announced recently that the official policy of Facebook now allows politicians to pay to spread disinformation in 2020 elections and in the future.So I just want to know how far I can push this in the next year,” she asked.Zuckerberg first said Facebook would remove political content “that is calling for violence, or could risk imminent physical harm, or voter or census suppression.” But after some more back and forth, Ocasio-Cortez became more direct.“Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal?” Ocasio-Cortez asked.
“I mean, if you’re not fact-checking political advertisements, I’m just trying to understand the bounds here, what’s fair game.” Zuckerberg replied that he didn’t have the answer “off the top of my head,” but after some more prodding said “I think probably.” Also Read: Facebook Antitrust Investigation Has Support of 47 Attorneys General “Do you see a potential problem here with a complete lack of fact-checking on political advertisements?” Ocasio-Cortez continued.Zuckerberg’s halting reply: “Well, Congresswoman, I think lying is bad, and I think if you were to run an ad that had a lie in it, that would be bad.That’s different from it being, from it, in our position, the right thing to do to prevent your constituents or people in an election from seeing that you had lied.” “So you won’t take down lies or you will take down lies? It’s just a pretty simple yes or no,” Oscaio-Cortez continued, adding that she’s “not talking about ‘spin.’” “Yes, in most cases in a democracy, I believe that people should be able to see for themselves what politicians that they may or may not vote for are saying,” Zuckerberg said.Representatives for Facebook didn’t immediately reply to a request for additional comment on the exchange.
There’s more of course.Watch the whole thing below: “So, you won’t take down lies or you will take down lies? I think that’s just a pretty simple yes or no.” Complete exchange between @RepAOC @AOC and Mark Zuckerberg at today’s House Financial Services Cmte hearing..
