Pelosi spurns Zuckerberg’s outreach in video dispute
WASHINGTON — Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the company declined to remove a doctored video of the San Francisco congresswoman, according to a person familiar with the interaction.
Pelosi has not personally responded to the outreach, however, as she has publicly criticized the company’s decision not to take down the video.
The news was first reported by the Washington Post.
At issue is a video of a speech Pelosi gave last month, which was edited to appear as if Pelosi was drunk or otherwise impaired. The video was widely circulated on social media, including Facebook. The company acknowledged the video had been doctored but said it would not remove it.
Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president for product policy and communications, told CNN that “it’s important for people to make their own informed choice for what to believe . ... Our job is to make sure we are getting them accurate information.”
Pelosi was critical of that decision, calling the social media giant an enabler of misinformation and citing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
“When something like Facebook says, ‘I know this is false, it’s a lie, but we’re showing it anyway,’ ” Pelosi said at a speech at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco last month, “I was giving them the benefit of the doubt on Russia. I thought it was unwitting. But clearly they wittingly were accomplices and enablers of false information to go across Facebook.”
Pelosi’s office and Facebook both declined to comment Tuesday. Her staff has been in touch with social media company, according to the Post.
Silicon Valley mega-companies like Facebook and Google have come under increasing criticism from both the left and right of the political spectrum. Democrats have grown frustrated with Facebook’s role in spreading misinformation and mishandling of customer data. Some Democratic presidential candidates have embraced the idea of breaking up Facebook on antitrust grounds.
Nevertheless, tech companies and their employees remain a major donor source for Democratic campaigns, giving tens of thousands of dollars to candidates and keeping the Bay Area a prime spot for fundraising.
In the last election cycle, Facebook and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, were the second- and third-highest sources of donations to Pelosi’s congressional campaign, combining for more than $30,000, according to the nonpartisan money-tracking group Open Secrets. The nonprofit attributes donations to companies if an affiliated political action committee, an employee or person related to an employee gives to a campaign.
Zuckerberg himself donated to Pelosi’s campaign during the 2014 election cycle, giving the maximum allowed amount of $2,600.