Zuckerberg: Social media firms shouldn’t be ‘arbiters of truth’

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg says the major social media firms should not position themselves as the gatekeepers of political speech online, as US President Donald Trump is threatening to regulate the companies. “I don’t think Facebook, or Internet platforms in general, should be arbiters of truth,” Zuckerberg said in an interview that aired yesterday on CNBC, a cable news channel, calling this a “dangerous line”. Trump will issue an executive order later on social media companies, the White House said. The New York Times reported the order could erode protections for those firms, in terms of liability for content posted on their platforms. Trump erupted in anger this week at Facebook’s rival, Twitter, after that platform attached a fact check to one of the president’s posts opposing mail-in ballots.

The fact check indicated the president was making false claims that voting by post would lead to mass fraud, amid a fight between Democrats and Trump over expanding people’s ability to cast their ballots in this election year amid a pandemic. Trump alleged conservative voices were being silenced and, if that continued, threatened to “strongly regulate, or close them down”. Zuckerberg said that while Facebook does not want to be “determining what is true or false” in terms of political speech, the company does have limits, including false medical information, voter suppression or hoaxes. “There are lines, and we will enforce them,” Zuckerberg said. “But, I think, in general, you want to give as wide a voice as possible, and give particular deference to political speech.”