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Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg - a White Plains native who grew up in Dobbs Ferry and attended Ardsley High school - and freshman Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - a Yorktown High School graduate - went toe-to-toe over the social media giant’s use of political ads and information.
“You announced recently that the official policy of Facebook now allows politicians to pay to spread disinformation in 2020 elections and in the future. So I just want to know how far I can push this in the next year,” Ocasio-Cortez said, questioning the company’s fact-checking system.
“Would I be able to run advertisements on Facebook targeting Republicans in primaries saying they voted for the Green New Deal?" Ocasio-Cortez asked during the hearing. "I mean, if you're not fact-checking political advertisements, I'm just trying to understand the bounds here.”
While he was grilled for several hours, Zuckerberg struggled to come up with answers, stating “I don’t know the answer off the top of my head. I think, probably.”
Facebook announced earlier this month that ads were allowed to run on the site, and most political ads would not be subjected to fact-checking.
"Posts and ads from politicians are generally not subjected to fact-checking," according to Facebook's policy. "In evaluating when this applies we ask our fact-checking partners to look at politicians at every level.”
The hearing comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign running an ad on the site that made false claims about former Vice President Joe Biden, prompting uproar from politicians and the media.
"So, you won't take down lies or you will take down lies? I think that's just a pretty simple yes or no,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“Well, Congresswoman, I think lying is bad, and I think if you were to run an ad that had a lie in it, that would be bad,” Zuckerberg replied. “That’s different from it being ... in our position, the right thing to do to prevent your constituents or people in an election from seeing that you had lied.
“In most cases, in a democracy, I believe that people should be able to see for themselves what politicians that they may or may not vote for are saying and judge their character for themselves.”
A complete video of the five-hour hearing on C-SPAN can be found here.
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