Scientists funded by Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan called on Facebook to censor President Donald Trump for his "misinformation and incendiary statements."
The call out came in a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, whose wife runs the philanthropic effort Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to combat disease, The Hill reported.
The letter contained "signatures currently from 143 scientists, of which 68 are principal investigators who are direct awardees of CZI or CZ Biohub funds – including over 60 professors at leading U.S. research institutions."
The letter read:
"We were disconcerted to see that Facebook has not followed their own policies in regards to President Trump, who has used the Facebook platform to spread both misinformation and incendiary statements. For example, his statement 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts' is a clear statement of inciting violence."
Trump has maintained that historically significant comment was made to defuse violence, looting, and rioting, not fuel it, and was "spoken as a fact, not as a statement," tweeting:
"Looting leads to shooting, and that's why a man was shot and killed in Minneapolis on Wednesday night – or look at what just happened in Louisville with 7 people shot.
"It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement. It's very simple, nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters, and those looking to cause trouble on social media. Honor the memory of George Floyd!"
Twitter has fact checked President Trump's political statements and the Zuckerberg-funded scientists are resistant to Facebook being less willing to do the same.
"We urge you to consider stricter policies on misinformation and incendiary language that harms people or groups of people, especially in our current climate that is grappling with racial injustice," the letter concluded.
The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution permits freedom of speech and Mark Zuckerberg has been adamant to protect that right – even for the U.S. president and the people who support him and his administration.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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