New Delhi: Reacting to the Donald Trump-Twitter controversy earlier this week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Thursday said that digital platforms must not act as the “arbiter of truth”.
Twitter had Tuesday attached a fact-check to one of Trump’s tweets that said mail-in ballots were “substantially fraudulent”. The micro-blogging site had put a warning label to the tweet, claiming it to be “unsubstantiated”.
There is NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent. Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed. The Governor of California is sending Ballots to millions of people, anyone…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
In an interview on Fox News Thursday, Zuckerberg said, “We have a different policy than, I think, Twitter on this. I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online.”
He also maintained that private firms, especially “platform companies” shouldn’t be in the position of fact-checking.
Zuckerberg later responded to Trump’s warning that the federal government would “close down” social media platforms.
“I have to understand what they actually would intend to do…But in general, I think a government choosing to censor a platform because they’re worried about censorship doesn’t exactly strike me as the right reflex there,” he said.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey reacted to Zuckerberg’s comments through a tweet that said: “Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions.”
This does not make us an “arbiter of truth.” Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions.
— jack (@jack) May 28, 2020
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Political speech
In an additional interview to CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin Thursday, Zuckerberg also spoke about political speech.
“Political speech is one of the most sensitive parts in a democracy, and people should be able to see what politicians say,” he said.
Zuckerberg maintained that the job of fact-checks 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 is slightly true or false.”
He also cleared his stance on “taking down content” by saying: “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.”
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