Just a few days after Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez praised Facebook employees who want to censor politicians’ ads, 2016 Democratic Nominee Hillary Clinton has shared her thoughts on the Facebook ad policy that exempts some politicians’ ads from its third-party “fact-checking” program.
Clinton described the policy as “appalling” and claimed that it will lead to “a world where democracy can’t thrive.” She added that “voters are being confronted by millions of pieces of misinformation.”
Facebook's decision to allow false information in political advertisements is appalling.
Voters are being confronted by millions of pieces of misinformation.
A world where up is down and down is up is a world where democracy can't thrive.
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 30, 2019
However, most Twitter users don’t agree with Clinton’s sentiment.
One person highlighted the hypocrisy in Clinton’s words and said: “Every time you open your mouth a lie comes out.”
Every time you open your mouth a lie comes out. Can I borrow some duck tape from someone.
— LoveToFlash (@LoveToFlash) October 30, 2019
Another person pointed to the apparent double standard when it comes to Democratic candidates' criticism of this Facebook ad policy and their relative silence on broadcast TV stations which have run uncensored political ads for more than a decade.
What I don't understand is why is it okay for TV stations to run lying political attack ads back-to-back-to-back for over a decade and suddenly this interest in Zuckerberg. Bit of a double standard it seems.
— JUSTICE FOR ALL! (@MJ34Hig44) October 30, 2019
“Or maybe people can find out themselves?” another person said.
Or maybe people can find out themselves?
— Kisse-mises (@BertilAnderss19) October 30, 2019
The responses to Clinton’s tweet echo Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s reasons for not censoring political ads. During his recent testimony to the House Financial Services Committee, Zuckerberg told Congresswoman Maxine Waters:
“Our policy is we do not fact check politicians’ speech, and the reason for that is that we believe that in a democracy it is important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying. Political speech is some of the most scrutinized speech already in the world.”
During the same hearing, Zuckerberg also told Ocasio-Cortez that it’s not right for Facebook to prevent constituents from seeing when politicians lie.
