Political speech is "one of the most sensitive parts in a democracy" and social networks should not fact-check it, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview airing Thursday.
“I don’t think that Facebook or internet platforms, in general, should be arbiters of truth,” the Facebook founder told CNBC "Squawk Box" co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin in an interview airing Thursday morning. "People should be able to see what politicians say."
His comments came in response to Twitter's decision to start fact-checking President Donald Trump's tweets. The website added two notifications, with links to sites such as The Washington Post and CNN, debunking the president's claims that mail-in ballots can result in voter fraud.
Twitter, however, declined to do anything about Trump's tweets that MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough should be investigated for the death of staffer Lori Klausutis. Her husband, Timothy Klausutis, begged CEO Jack Dorsey to remove tweets by Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. that reference the "debunked falsehood" and the "vicious lie" involving her.
Zuckerberg told Sorkin that Facebook does use independent fact-checkers to review content, but their duty is to "really catch the worst of the worst stuff."
“The point of that program isn’t to try to parse words on if something's slightly true or false,” he said. “In terms of political speech, again, I think you want to give broad deference to the political process and political speech.”
Facebook does not allow users to post content that can cause violence or harm to themselves, and misinformation that could lead to voter suppression is banned, said Zuckerberg.
"There are clear lines that map to specific harms and damage that can be done where we take down the content, but overall, including compared to some of the other companies, we try to be more on the side of giving people a voice and free expression," said Zuckerberg.
In October, Facebook said it will allow politicians to run ads on the site, even if they carry misinformation, but Zuckerberg said there are "clear lines" that come into play when it comes to taking down content.
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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