“I know many people are upset that we’ve left the President’s posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Earlier this week, Trump’s tweeted about the protests in Minneapolis saying, “when the looting starts the shooting starts.” The tweet was flagged by Twitter for glorifying violence, the second time the micro-blogging platform has marked the president’s tweets. However, the same message posted on Facebook was not flagged by the social media network.
Zuckerberg said he struggled in deciding how to respond to Trump’s posts because he personally has “a visceral negative reaction to this kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.”
However, he said his responsibility in being the company’s CEO means he has to take into account Facebook’s commitment to freedom of expression.
Zuckerberg said that after looking closely at Trump’s post and evaluating whether it violated Facebook’s policies, the social site decided to leave it up unflagged, because references to the National Guard was a warning of state action. “We think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force,” the statement read.
“Unlike Twitter, we do not have a policy of putting a warning in front of posts that may incite violence because we believe that if a post incites violence, it should be removed regardless of whether it is newsworthy, even if it comes from a politician,” he wrote.
Zuckerberg publicly criticized Twitter when the site first flagged two of Trump’s tweets about mail-in voting.
In an interview with Fox News’ The Daily Briefing, he said Facebook has different policies and that he doesn’t think private companies should be the arbiters of truth.
Zuckerberg noted in his statement that it has been an “incredibly tough week after a string of tough weeks,” citing George Floyd’s death as it comes in the wake of Ahmaud Arbery’s and Breonna Taylor’s. He said he often finds the content Facebook leaves up offensive–but the company’s “overall philosophy is that it is better to have this discussion out in the open, especially when the stakes are so high.”
Zuckerberg said he disagrees with Trump’s remarks but that taking down the president’s posts would not be holding him accountable.
“I believe people should be able to see this for themselves, because ultimately accountability for those in positions of power can only happen when their speech is scrutinized out in the open,” he wrote.
Newsweek reached out to Zuckerberg for comment but did not hear back before publication.
