Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton called out Facebook Wednesday for refusing to stop the circulation of an edited video falsely portraying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her speech.
“The big social media platforms know their systems are being manipulated by foreign and domestic actors to sow division, promote extremism and spread misinformation, but they won’t get serious about cleaning up their platforms unless consumers demand it,” Mrs. Clinton said during her commencement speech at Hunter College.
“And we saw why it was so important just last week when Facebook refused to take down a fake video of Nancy Pelosi. It wasn’t even a close call, the video is sexist trash. YouTube took it down, but Facebook left it up,” she said.
“Let’s send a message to Facebook that those who are in Facebook’s communities would really like Facebook to pay attention to false and doctored videos before we are flooded with them in the next months,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Mrs. Pelosi also took Facebook to task for keeping the video on its site and said the company is “lying to the public.”
“We have said all along, poor Facebook, they were unwittingly exploited by the Russians. I think wittingly because right now they are putting up something that they know is false. I think it’s wrong. I think they have proven — by not taking down something they know is false — that they were willing enablers of the Russian interference in our election,” she said.
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Facebook said it has placed graphics notifying users that it’s a doctored video and has “significantly reduce its distribution by showing it lower in the News Feed,” according to Mediaite.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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