US: Zuckerberg stumbles on fact-checking questions from AOC
By Solange Reyner From Newsmax
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday during testimony before the House Financial Services Committee stumbled over his responses to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s questions concerning fact-checking political advertisements.
“Could I pay to target predominantly black zip codes and advertise them the incorrect election date?” Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, asked.
“No, congresswoman, you couldn’t,” Zuckerberg responded. “We have even for these policies around the newsworthiness of content that politicians say and the general principle—”
“But you said that you’re not going to fact-check my ads?” Ocasio-Cortez asked.
“If anyone, including a politician, is saying things that could cause — is calling for violence — or could risk imminent physical harm or voter or sense of suppression, when we roll out the sense of suppression policy, we will take that content down,” an occasionally stuttering Zuckerberg replied.
Ocasio-Cortez noted the apparent contradiction: “So, there is some threshold where you will fact-check political advertisements, is that what you’re telling me?”
“Yes, for specific things like that,” Zuckerberg admitted.
Later, Ocasio-Cortez asked whether she could run ads targeting Republicans in primaries saying they voted for her Green New Deal.
“Sorry, I, I– could you repeat that?” Zuckerberg asked.
“Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal?” she repeated. “I mean, if you’re not fact-checking political advertisements, I’m just trying to understand the bounds here – what’s fair game.”
“Congresswoman, I don’t know the answer to that off the top of my head. I think probably,” Zuckerberg said.
Ocasio-Cortez taunted: “So, you don’t know if I’d be able to do that.”
“I think probably,” Zuckerberg confirmed.
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