Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg responded to President Trump’s tweet which accused Facebook of being anti-Trump, touting the social media network’s inclusivity for all ideas, but also expressed regret for a comment he made after the election in which he rejected blame for Facebook’s role in perpetuating “fake news” during the campaign.
“Every day I work to bring people together and build a community for everyone,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post Wednesday. “We hope to give all people a voice and create a platform for all ideas.”
“Trump says Facebook is against him,” he added. “Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like.”
In his long Facebook note, Zuckerberg also expressed regret for saying after the election that it was a “crazy idea” that fake news disseminated on Facebook influenced the election. Facebook, after all, has since become the subject of interest for investigators looking into Russian meddling in the election.
“After the election, I made a comment that I thought the idea misinformation on Facebook changed the outcome of the election was a crazy idea,” Zuckerberg said on Wednesday. “Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an issue to be dismissive.”
Zuckerberg also listed several things Facebook did to contribute, in a positive manner, to the 2016 election, such as providing a platform for more people to speak out, allowing candidates to communicate directly with followers, and running “get out the vote” efforts that assisted up to 2 million people register to vote.
“We will continue to work to build a community for all people,” Zuckerberg said. “We will do our part to defend against nation states attempting to spread misinformation and subvert elections. We’ll keep working to ensure the integrity of free and fair elections around the world, and to ensure our community is a platform for all ideas and force for good in democracy.”
In a tweet Wednesday morning, the president said that the social media network with more than a billion active users has always worked against him.
“Facebook was always anti-Trump.The Networks were always anti-Trump hence,Fake News, @nytimes(apologized) & @wapo were anti-Trump. Collusion?” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.
Facebook was always anti-Trump.The Networks were always anti-Trump hence,Fake News, @nytimes(apologized) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 27, 2017
Facebook repeatedly struggled with users toying with the social network’s news feed algorithm to spread fake news during the campaign and announced earlier this month that $100,000 was spent on ads from June 2015 to May 2017 by a Russian group. Since then all 470 accounts associated with the ads have been suspended because they did not adhere to authenticity requirements.
In an effort to address this issue in the future, Zuckerberg announced last week Facebook would intentionally make political advertising on the platform more transparent.
The descriptions of the ads have been turned over to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 campaign and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin.
Facebook is also expected to turn over the same content to the Senate and House intelligence committees this week.
