Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Says Twitter's Move to Fact-Check POTUS Trump Is Wrong

Nhx Tingson, Tech Times 28 May 2020, 03:05 am

The United States President had always found freedom using Twitter, a microblogging social media platform, until recently.

President Trump vs. Twitter

Both POTUS Donald J. Trump and Twitter were recently on headlines after the social media platform fact-checked one of the President's tweets claiming that mail-in ballots increase voter fraud.

According to a recently published report from TechTimes, the platform tagged the President's tweet with a message urging people to "get the facts" regarding mail-in ballots and then offered a link that contradicts Trump's allegations.

Because of Twitter's move, the U.S. President accused them of "stifling free speech" and said that they were "interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election."

.@Twitter is now interfering in the 2020 Presidential Election. They are saying my statement on Mail-In Ballots, which will lead to massive corruption and fraud, is incorrect, based on fact-checking by Fake News CNN and the Amazon Washington Post.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020

Facebook CEO Criticizes Twitter

Now, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined the conversation and criticized its fellow social media giant, saying that they were wrong to fact-check the President's tweet.

According to Newsweek, Zuckerberg went on an interview with Dana Perino from the FOX News show, The Daily Briefing.

"We have a different policy, I think than Twitter on this." the Facebook founder said.

"I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. In general, private companies probably shouldn't be, especially these platform companies, shouldn't be in the position of doing that," Zuckerberg further explained.

In addition, Zuckerberg told Perino that Facebook is "hands-off" when it comes to political speech, and they don't intervene with public posts unless there is "a threat of imminent harm."

Mark Zuckerberg's full interview at The Daily Briefing is expected to air this Thursday, May 28.

Signing an Executive Order

After the incident with Twitter, President Trump is reportedly going to sign an executive order addressing social media companies, according to Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary who shared the news on Wednesday night, May 27.

Nevertheless, reporters from the White House are unaware of what the executive order will contain, although some say it is likely related to Twitter and their fact-checking.

Two of Trump's allies in Congress even told the news outlet that the order might strip Twitter of their "special speech liability immunity" that the company has received.

"Republicans feel that Social Media Platforms totally silence conservatives voices. We will strongly regulate, or close them down before we can ever allow this to happen. We saw what they attempted to do and failed in 2016. We can't let a more sophisticated version of that happen again," Trump's allies said.

The world is waiting for further information about the executive order, which would be signed on Thursday, May 28.

U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, one of Trump's supporters, sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey questioning the site's "unprecedented decision" to single out the POTUS because of his political speech.

Besides Twitter, news outlets like CNN, the New York Times, and Washington Post were also mentioned in the issue between the social media platform and U.S. President Trump.

As of writing, Twitter and Jack Dorsey have not publicly commented yet regarding the issue, and people are most likely eager to hear what they have to say.