October 23, 2019

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (click here) struggled to explain the social media company’s new policy on fact-checking political ads under questioning from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., during a Wednesday hearing.

The company recently announced that to protect political speech it would no longer fact-check ads from politicians, essentially allowing campaigns to pay Facebook to spread disinformation.

At the hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, Zuckerberg said the company’s policy was to take down posts from anyone, including politicians, calling for violence or attempting to suppress voter turnout or participation in the census, but his response to other questions was less clear.

“Could I run ads targeting Republicans in primaries saying that they voted for the Green New Deal?” asked Ocasio-Cortez. “If you’re not fact-checking political advertisements, I’m just trying to understand the bounds here, what’s fair game.”...