Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood firm on his social media site’s decision to continue running political ads containing false information.
“What I believe is that in a democracy, it’s really important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying, so they can make their own judgments,” Mr. Zuckerberg said on “CBS This Morning” in an interview that aired Monday. “And, you know, I don’t think that a private company should be censoring politicians or news.”
Host Gayle King asked: “But a small group of your employees … about 200 wrote a letter saying that they wish that you would reconsider. ’Because,’ they said, ’free speech and paid speech are not the same.’ Do they have a point?”
“Well, this is clearly a very complex issue, and a lot of people have — have a lot of different opinions,” Mr. Zuckerberg replied. “At the end of the day, I just think that in a democracy, people should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying.”
“Even if the ads are — contain false information?” Ms. King asked.
“I think that people should be able to judge for themselves the character of politicians,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.
Mr. Zuckerberg essentially doubled down on Facebook’s stance that it will allow political ads, including ones which are factually incorrect, onto their platform, even as other social media companies such as Twitter have banned political ads outright.
On the same day of Twitter’s decision in October, Mr. Zuckerberg said during an earnings call that Facebook would continue to allow ads, which he said “can be an important part of the voice.” However, he did advocate for more transparency on the ads’ origins.
In the CBS interview, Mr. Zuckerberg also addressed a secret meeting held with President Trump, saying it was a “private dinner” he didn’t want to discuss but that Mr. Trump didn’t attempt to lobby him, saying that’s “not really how that works.”
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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