John, Facebook and Instagram just announced they’re reversing Donald Trump’s ban – and reinstating his accounts on their platforms. [1]
And, believe it or not, because he’s running for President again, Facebook has already declared they’ll give him a free pass from their fact-checking policy!
Tell Mark Zuckerberg: Donald Trump cannot rejoin Facebook with a free pass to lie and incite violence. Facebook needs to actually enforce their policies against disinformation and violent rhetoric, especially against political candidates.
I don’t need to tell you how dangerous this is – the last time Trump’s election lies went unchecked, he abused his massive online megaphone to incite the violent January 6th insurrection – which led to his ban in the first place.
Since that deadly day, bipartisan investigators in Congress have uncovered a mountain of evidence showing how Trump’s social media vitriol was like “rocket fuel for extremists” – which means holding his statements to the same factual standards as every other user is the absolute least companies like Facebook can do. [2]
But Facebook’s invitation to Trump today amounts to a free pass to spread disinformation, promote hate, and even attempt to incite future insurrections – despite the damage that his actions have already done to our democracy.
We need to take election disinformation seriously – and Facebook has an obligation to moderate their content and counter disinformation.
John, we can’t stand by while our social media platforms are overrun with extremists and lies. I hope you’ll join me today in calling on Facebook to fact check Donald Trump.
Thanks for all you do,
Yosef Getachew, Media & Democracy Program Director
and the team at Common Cause
P.S. Want to learn more about our work on this issue? Check out the letter we sent to key social media CEOs in advance of the 2022 midterm elections.
[1] https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/25/tech/meta-facebook-trump-decision/index.html
[2] https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/02/jan-6-committee-files-trump-evidence-00076004
