Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's concerned about the potential for civil unrest if a candidate declares a win prematurely in the November election.
"I think that that would be dangerous," he told "CBS This Morning" co-anchor Gayle King in an interview airing Thursday. "I think it could risk increasing, you know, people getting into the streets and civil unrest after the election, which I think would be very problematic."
He added that Facebook is taking the situation seriously and will make sure that "people aren't declaring victory and saying that any kind of ongoing counting of votes is evidence of a rigged election or anything like that. I think it would be kind of delegitimizing of the election."
He told King that he thinks it's important that people are prepared now for the possibility of premature announcements.
"There's nothing illegitimate about taking a few extra days or even weeks in order to make sure that all the votes get counted," said Zuckerberg. "In fact, it would be illegitimate if we didn't make sure that all of the ballot votes were counted."
Facebook also partners with local election officials so misinformation doesn't get out, including about conditions at local polling places.
"If the official says, 'No, it's fine here,' we'll take that down," said Zuckerberg of fake posts about the polls. "That's voter suppression. We'll take that down no matter who says it."
He also said he thinks it's "problematic" if anyone says the election is fraudulent, and that includes President Donald Trump's outcry about mail-in voting.
"This will definitely apply to the president once this policy goes into place and will apply to everyone equally," Zuckerberg said of the new policy, adding that he hasn't spoken with Trump recently about the issue.
"I have had certain discussions with him in the past and where I've told him that I thought some of the rhetoric was problematic," he said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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