Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes racial bigotry fuels the success of Facebook.
The New York Democrat responded on Thursday to claims that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is not instituting fact-checking policies at his social media platform, as Twitter has done, out of fear of blowback from President Trump.
“Zuckerberg is not worried about being bullied by Trump,” she tweeted. “He is worried that Facebook’s PR operation is falling apart as it’s exposed that their platform relies on white supremacists & disinformation peddlers to be successful.”
“They aren’t ignoring them. They’re protecting them,” she added.
Zuckerberg is not worried about being bullied by Trump.
He is worried that Facebook’s PR operation is falling apart as it’s exposed that their platform relies on white supremacists & disinformation peddlers to be successful.
They aren’t ignoring them. They’re protecting them. https://t.co/DA4Fz6pc5q
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 28, 2020
During a Wednesday interview with Fox News host Dana Perino, Zuckerberg diverged from Twitter’s new fact-check feature, which placed a label on a recent tweet from Trump that criticized mail-in voting.
“We have a different policy, I think, than Twitter on this,” he said. “I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. I think in general, private companies probably shouldn’t be — especially these platform companies — shouldn’t be in the position of doing that.”
Trump accused Twitter of interfering with the 2020 presidential election by applying the label to his tweet, prompting a response from CEO Jack Dorsey.
“Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make,” Dorsey said in a tweet of his own. “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.”
The president is expected to sign an executive order regarding the regulation of social media companies on Thursday with aims to protect freedom of speech.
