Mark Zuckerberg felt compelled to respond to Aaron Sorkin's scathing takedown—by drawing inspiration from his critic's own words
At the end of the post, Zuckerberg made sure to add an attribution: “Aaron Sorkin, The American President.”
The point speaks for itself. Zuckerberg has stated his belief that not censoring political ads—even when they're blatantly false, and under non-political circumstances would be fact-checked by Facebook moderators—represents a defense of free speech, even when it's unpopular. The argument has come under fire from Zuck’s contemporaries in Silicon Valley, who say there's a difference between allowing regular users to freely post their beliefs, and accepting money and promoting false beliefs through paid advertising. “A political message earns reach when people decide to follow an account or retweet,” Twitter CEO. “Paying for reach removes that decision, forcing highly optimized and targeted political messages on people.
Facebook employees have also taken issue with their boss's free speech argument. Earlier this week, more than 250 employees signed anthat notes, “Free speech and paid speech are not the same thing.” The policy “doesn’t protect voices, but instead allows politicians to weaponize our platform by targeting people who believe that content posted by political figures is trustworthy,” the employees wrote.
Casting shade at Sorkin suggests Zuckerberg is sticking to his guns over the policy, even as Twitter's announcement banning political ads has further complicated Facebook's “anything goes” position. In his earnings call Wednesday, though, Zuckerberg left the door open for possible change—and acknowledged that he knows “everyone is frustrated with us”—even as he fiercely defended the policy.
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