Biden describes Facebook’s Zuckerberg as ‘a real problem’
Democratic presidential candidate slams social media CEO over political ad policies
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg woke up Friday morning to harsh criticism from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, who suggested that Zuckerberg could be held legally liable for his company’s policies regarding what can be said in political ads on the Facebook platform.
In an interview with the New York Times, Biden called Zuckerberg “a real problem” when he responded to a question about an ad that ran on Facebook last October that said Biden had blackmailed officials in Ukraine in order to stop them from investigating his son, Hunter. Biden said the experience only cemented his thoughts about Facebook’s ability to influence voters’ opinions.
“I’ve never been a fan of Facebook, as you probably know,” Biden said. “I’ve never been a big Zuckerberg fan.”
Facebook has been the subject of much criticism over its policy of not factchecking political ads for false statements. Last week, Facebook said it had no plans to make any major changes to its political ad policy during the current presidential election campaign.
Biden told the Times that Americans have a right to be concerned about how much influence Facebook has over the messages put in front of voters.
“I’ve been in the view that not only should we be worrying about (Facebook’s) concentration of power,” Biden said, but we also should be worried about the lack of privacy and different rules applying to Zuckerberg and everyone else.
“You can’t write something you know to be false and be exempt from being sued,” Biden said. “But he can.”
Biden went on to say that if it can be found that Facebook actually did harm via its political ad policy, he thinks Zuckerberg and his company should face some kind of punishment.
“He should be submitted to civil liability and his company to civil liability, just like you would be here at The New York Times,” Biden said. “Whether he engaged in something and amounted to collusion that in fact caused harm that would in fact be equal to a criminal offense, that’s a different issue.”
A Facebook spokesperson said the company had no comment about Biden’s statements.
As Facebook stands by its policy on political ads, presidential candidates continue to boost their ad spending on the platform, and Democratic candidates have been spending heavily on Facebook ads aimed specifically at voters in California.
Biden isn’t the only politician to come out swinging against Facebook this week.
On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Facebook a “shameful” company and said that it has become “accomplices for misleading the American people with money from god-knows where.”
Pelosi, who made her comments at her weekly Capitol Hill press conference, has had a difficult relationship with Facebook after the company last year wouldn’t remove a video that had been altered to make Pelosi sound like she was slurring her words.