Last week, Facebook walked back its controversial “fact-check” of pro-life advocacy group Live Action after reports emerged that two of the supposedly independent fact-checkers that were labeling Live Action's posts “false” were pro-abortion activists. Now Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that there “clearly was bias” in this situation and that bias is “an issue we've struggled with for a long time.”
Zuckerberg made the comments in a closed-door meeting with Senator Josh Hawley where he also discussed bias, privacy, and competition.
Zuckerberg admitted there “clearly was bias” in the @LiveAction @LilaGraceRose censorship. Said bias is “an issue we've struggled with for a long time.”
Facebook has confirmed Zuckerberg's admission of clear bias to CNN reporter Brian Fung.
For the record, Facebook told me it doesn't dispute Hawley's account of this exchange, reiterating that Zuckerberg's “clearly bias” remark refers to the specifics of this fact-checking incident, not to imply that Facebook itself is clearly biased. https://t.co/leY7JIzPwv
Live Action's founder and president Lila Rose has responded to the admission by saying that the group has yet to receive an apology from Facebook for the “bogus” fact-check.
We have yet to receive any apology from @Facebook.
Thousands of my FB followers were sent push notifications saying I spread “false” news.
The bogus “fact check” by the abortionists who have publicly called for our deplatforming is still up on the Health Feedback website.
She went on to call for Facebook to make this right by:
- Publicly apologizing for this wrongdoing
- Removing “the inaccurate Fact Check”
- Re-sending a notification to all of Live Action's followers who were presented with the fact-check labeling its posts as “false”
- Fixing their process so it never happens again to Live Action or anyone else
2/2: @Facebook also needs to remove the inaccurate Fact Check, resend a notification to our followers who were notified by Facebook fact checkers that our posts were "false", and fix their process so it never happens again to us or anyone else.
After meeting with Zuckerberg, Hawley suggested that he had doubts about the CEO's sincerity and told reporters outside his Senate office:
“This is the same sort of song and dance we hear from Facebook every time it gets caught, whether it's taking people's data without telling them, it's always, ‘Oh, we made a mistake; we'll try to do better in the future.'“
Rose also echoed Hawley's concerns and said: “They claim to be neutral but don't act that way. They enjoy privileges as a platform, but act like a far-Left, politically motivated publisher. This affects ALL news & content shared on FB.”
Some say just move off the platform. FB has a user base of 2B+. Educational nonprofits like ours have developed followings of millions, investing hardwon $$ for years in order to share our content, because FB claimed they don't censor content based on political viewpoint.
This admission of clear bias from Zuckerberg comes days after another huge admission by Facebook – that the company's labeling of political commentator and congressional candidate Laura Loomer as a “dangerous individual” person was an “opinion” that Facebook believes should be protected under the First Amendment.
