Zuckerberg: I Don’t Think that Facebook, Internet Platforms ‘Should Be Arbiters of Truth’

In an interview that aired Thursday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg weighed in on President Donald Trump’s feud with Twitter after the social media platform recently inserted fact-checking links to his tweets about vote-by-mail.

Zuckerberg said he does not think Facebook nor other online social media platforms “should be arbiters of truth,” but he did say there are lines that cannot be crossed.

“We’re different companies,” Zuckerberg stated. “But I think we’ve been pretty clear on what I think the right approach is, which is I don’t think that Facebook or Internet platforms, in general, should be arbiters of truth. I think that’s kind of a dangerous line to get down to in terms of deciding what is true and what isn’t. And I think political speech is one of the most sensitive parts in a democracy and people should be able to see what politicians say and there’s a ton of scrutiny already. Political speech is the most scrutinized speech already by a lot of the media, and I think that will continue. Of course, we have lines.”

“Because we don’t want to be determining what is true and false, doesn’t mean that politicians can say whatever they want,” he continued. “And our policies are grounded in trying to give people as much of a voice as possible while saying if you are going to harm people in specific ways if you are going to do something that’s going to cause violence if you are saying that something is a cure to a disease that has been proven to be a cure, but it’s not, and that could lead people to either not seek another treatment or do something that could be harmful, we’ll take that down no matter who says that.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent