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‘Facebook actively helping Trump spread lies and misinformation': Elizabeth Warren

US Democratic presidential hopeful Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks to CNN's Gloria Borger (L) and David Axelrod in the spin room during the fourth Democratic primary debate of the 2020 presidential campaign season co-hosted by The New York Times and CNN at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio on October 15, 2019. (AFP photo)

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren has criticized Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, saying that his social media network giant “is actively helping Trump spread lies and misinformation.”

Warren on Thursday censured Zuckerberg for a speech he made earlier in the day at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, saying his comments show “how unprepared Facebook is to handle the 2020 election."

The senator from Massachusetts also stated that Facebook was posting political advertisements with misinformation to make a big profit.

“Mark Zuckerberg's speech today shows how little he learned from 2016, and how unprepared Facebook is to handle the 2020 election,” Warren tweeted.

“Facebook had a policy that didn't permit misinformation in any ads. Facebook built relationships with independent fact-checkers, so they weren't the sole deciders of what was or wasn't a lie. But Facebook undermined those relationships and excluded political ads from that policy,” she continued.

"Here's the thing, Mark. Trump isn't just posting a lie on his own page for his own followers. Facebook is accepting millions of dollars from Trump to run political ads, including ones with misinformation and outright lies. Ads that TV stations won't even run," Warren added.

"Facebook is actively helping Trump spread lies and misinformation. Facebook already helped elect Donald Trump once. They might do it again—and profit off of it," she continued.

Senator Warren has been a staunch critic of Facebook’s rules on political ads. Her campaign last week trolled Facebook on its own turf, starting the debate about how aggressively the social media giant should tackle disinformation and political ads.

The Facebook page for Warren’s campaign posted an ad promoting a false claim that Zuckerberg endorsed President Trump.

“Breaking news: Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook just endorsed Donald Trump for re-election.”

“You’re probably shocked, and you might be thinking, ‘how could this possibly be true?’ ” it continues.

“Well, it’s not. (Sorry.),” the ad continues. “But what Zuckerberg *has* done is given Donald Trump free rein to lie on his platform — and then to pay Facebook gobs of money to push out their lies to American voters."

Zuckerberg has defended Facebook’s policy to allow politicians to post ads with misleading or false information, saying it is “something we have to live with.”

In a tense appearance before Congress in April last year, Zuckerberg refused to make any promises to support new legislation or change how the social network does business.


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