Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with a range of establishment conservatives in Silicon Valley on Wednesday to discuss the reported suppression of conservative content.
There were reportedly 16 attendees at the meeting, which included:
- Glenn Beck, founder of the The Blaze
- Barry Bennett, an adviser to Donald Trump
- Jim DeMint, former GOP Senator from South Carolina
- Robert Bluey, editor in chief of the The Daily Signal
- Dana Perino, host at Fox News
- Alex Skatell, founder of the Independent Journal Review
- Mary Katharine Ham, Hot Air Editor at Large
- S.E. Cupp, CNN political commentator
- Jenny Beth Martin, CEO of the Tea Party Patriots
- Brent Bozell, President of Media Research Center
- Zac Moffatt, part of Mitt Romney’s campaign
- Arthur Brooks, American Entreprise Institute
Representatives from Breitbart were asked to attend but declined the invitation, as did American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp.
Cupp posted on Twitter after the meeting to say “it had been very productive.”
Meanwhile Fox News host Dana Perino told The Blaze that the meeting was “overall positive,” adding that Zuckerburg had a “genuine desire” to fix Facebook’s rift with conservatives.
President of Media Research Brent Bozell also talked positively of the meeting, saying that “Facebook understands there is a problem” and that they also “have a genuine desire to correct it.”
Zuckerberg himself posted on Facebook shortly after the meeting to say “I know many conservatives don’t trust that our platform surfaces content without a political bias.”
“I wanted to hear their concerns personally and have an open conversation about how we can build trust,” he claimed. “I want to do everything I can to make sure our teams uphold the integrity of our products.”
Meanwhile Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos was critical of the meeting and the image it portrayed, saying that it merely assisted Facebook in its marketing efforts and that “extreme stupidity” was the only explanation for the participants’ attendance.
Facebook have also confirmed they are aware of Yiannopoulos’s invitation to debate Mark Zuckerburg one on one over the issue of censorship of conservative media.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at ben@yiannopoulos.net
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