Dear friend,
Mark Zuckerberg just gave Donald Trump the freedom to spread lies, hate,
and election misinformation on Facebook.^1
Facebook has policies that dictate that the ads run on its platform must
be factual. Well -- not anymore. If you’re a politician, you can now spend
millions of dollars advertising lies, hate, and white supremacist
conspiracy theories on Facebook.
Last week, Zuckerberg was grilled by AOC and Rep. Maxine Waters on his new
“Trump exemption” ad policy.^2 He wants congressional and regulatory
approval for his financial pet project Libra, so he is vulnerable to
public outrage about his new Trump exemption.
[ [link removed] ]Tell Mark Zuckerberg: Reverse your decision to let Trump run Facebook
ads that spread lies, hate, and election misinformation.
Facebook ads were key to Trump’s victory in 2016. Trump’s own 2016 digital
director said “Twitter is how [Trump] talked to the people, Facebook
was... how he won.”^3,4
Zuckerberg directed Facebook staff to help Trump run ads targeting voters
ahead of the 2016 elections. Now, he’s going a step further.
He is giving Trump and other politicians a blank check to advertise lies
-- so they can manipulate the 2020 elections through hate and
misinformation.
Zuckerberg announced the Trump exemption to Facebook ads just 5 days after
meeting with Trump.^5 It’s hard to believe that’s a coincidence.
Zuckerberg wants to protect his empire at any cost. He’s been doing his
best to manipulate the 2020 elections.
Recently, audio leaked of Zuckerberg warning his staff about the threat of
2020 candidates who are calling for Facebook’s corporate power to be
reined in and for big tech monopolies to be broken up.
This is after Zuckerberg spent months cozying up to right-wing leaders who
don’t want to put a check on corporate power.^6
Our democracy is too important to be manipulated by billionaire CEOs.
Especially ones who will do anything to pick politicians that will protect
their corporate empire.
[ [link removed] ]Keep the pressure up on Mark Zuckerberg. Tell him he doesn’t get to
choose the next president, and that Facebook must have the same
fact-checking standards for politicians as it does for the rest of us.
Thanks for defending the future of our democracy,
Salma and the team at Demand Progress
[ [link removed] ]DONATE
Sources:
1. Rolling Stone, "What Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Exposed About Mark
Zuckerberg and Facebook Heading Into 2020," [ [link removed] ]October 24th, 2019.
2. Salon, "AOC and Maxine Waters confront Mark Zuckerberg about giving
politicians "license to lie" on Facebook," [ [link removed] ]October 24th, 2019.
3. The Guardian, "Trump digital director says Facebook helped win the
White House," [ [link removed] ]October 8th, 2017.
4. The Washington Post, "All the ways Trump’s campaign was aided by
Facebook, ranked by importance," [ [link removed] ]March 22nd, 2018.
5. CNBC, "Warren attacks Facebook for ‘quietly’ changing its political ad
policy after Zuckerberg’s meeting with Trump," [ [link removed] ]October 8th, 2019.
6. Politico, "Inside Mark Zuckerberg's private meetings with conservative
pundits," [ [link removed] ]October 14th, 2019.
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