The Democratic National Committee’s CEO criticized Facebook on Tuesday for its refusal to fact check posts from politicians, including those of President Donald Trump as the President goes on an anti-impeachment crusade on the social giant’s platform.
DNC CEO Seema Nanda said in an emailed state to TPM that the organization was “deeply disappointed” in Facebook for exempting political candidates from its third-party fact checking policy, a move she argued allows Trump to “mislead the American people on their platform unimpeded.”
“Social media platforms have a responsibility to protect our democracy and counter disinformation online,” Nanda said. “This is a serious missed opportunity by Facebook.”
Trump’s reelection campaign has begun a massive Facebook ad blitz to attack House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry against the President. CNN reported that the campaign has funneled $600,000 to $2 million into the ads, which also spread Trump’s false claim that 2020 rival Joe Biden promised Ukraine “$1 BILLION DOLLARS” if the government fired a prosecutor.
Facebook Vice President of Global Affairs and Communications Nick Clegg explained the exemption rule last week in a blog post, writing that the social media giant does not believe it’s “appropriate” for Facebook to “referee political debates and prevent a politician’s speech from reaching its audience and being subject to public debate and scrutiny.”
Therefore, Facebook “will not send organic content or ads from politicians to our third-party fact-checking partners for review,” according to Clegg.
“We have a responsibility to protect the platform from outside interference, and to make sure that when people pay us for political ads we make it as transparent as possible,” the Facebook executive said during a speech last week, according to a transcript in the blog post. “But it is not our role to intervene when politicians speak.”
Until the DNC calls for a boycott of Facebook it won’t matter. I deleted my FB account months ago - but could not get a single other person to do the same. Even some diehard Warren fans I spoke with today think seeing pictures of people you knew in high school is more important than sending a message.
Facebook wants to become politicized and be seen as the Republican platform?
If Twitter isn’t going fact check or the political ads on TV aren’t fact checked then why should Facebook fact check the ads from politicians? Caveat Emptor is as relevant now as it was then.
Note to Nick Clegg: Fuck you, pal!
There is actually some scrutiny of ads for TV, though. Been plenty of cases where networks refused to air them for one reason or another, which can include blatant lying.