Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has criticised Twitter after it fact-checked Donald Trump’s false tweets.
Twitter added a blue link under the tweets, which reads “Get the facts about mail-in ballots,” and takes users to fact-checking articles from newsrooms and journalists debunking Trump’s claims that postal voting is “fraudulent” and predicting that “mail boxes will be robbed.”
While voter fraud is marginally more common through postal votes than when people vote in person, the level of voter fraud in America is miniscule and so would not be likely to make any major difference to any election, including the upcoming presidential election in November 2020.
“We have a different policy, I think, than Twitter on this,“ Zuckerberg told Dana Perino, host of the Fox News show The Daily Briefing, in a clip of an interview scheduled to be aired on 28 May.
“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 added.
The message Mr Trump posted on Twitter was also posted on his Facebook page. Despite Facebook’s policy of removing content which misrepresents ways of voting or voter registration, the company will not take action against the president.
In a statement, the company said: “We believe that people should be able to have a robust debate about the electoral process, which is why we have crafted our policies to focus on misrepresentations that would interfere with the vote.”
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey responded to Zuckerberg’s criticisms, saying: “Fact check: there is someone ultimately accountable for our actions as a company, and that’s me. Please leave our employees out of this. We’ll continue to point out incorrect or disputed information about elections globally. And we will admit to and own any mistakes we make.”
“This does not make us an 'arbiter of truth.' Our intention is to connect the dots of conflicting statements and show the information in dispute so people can judge for themselves. More transparency from us is critical so folks can clearly see the why behind our actions,” he wrote on Twitter.
Mr Trump has since said he is going to sign an executive order on social media companies following his threats to “strongly regulate” or “close down” platforms following Twitter’s fact-checking decisions. Details about what form this order would take are scarce, but the order is expected to be signed 28 May.
Mr Trump’s Republican allies in Congress suggest that the president could strip the social media giant of the special speech liability immunity.
Twitter currently receives immunity under American law in what’s known as Section 230, which states that companies that distribute user content are not publishers, in contrast to news sites.
Section 230 has been repeatedly misunderstood by congresspeople under a false belief that the law exists to keep the internet “free of political censorship.” The law has since become a partisan issue in America, with Democrats suggesting that social media companies are not doing enough to counter propaganda from outside sources, while Republicans believe the companies are moderating too much because of questionable claims that such moderation unfairly targets conservatives.
The Facebook founders’ criticism follows a report from the Wall Street Journal that suggests Facebook executives took a decision to shelve research which would make its platform more civil because the proposed changes would have disproportionately affected conservative users and publishers.
