Joe Biden lashed out at Facebook Inc on Thursday, saying the social media company has failed to stop the spread of disinformation and circulating an open letter for supporters to demand the company change its policies.
“With fewer than five months until the 2020 election, real changes to Facebook’s policies for their platform and how they enforce them are necessary to protect against a repeat of the role that disinformation played in the 2016 election and that continues to threaten our democracy today. We are urging our supporters to make their voices heard in this call for change,” Bill Russo, a campaign spokesman, said in a statement.
The Biden campaign says the Democrat wants Facebook to promote trustworthy sources of information instead of unverified posts, quickly remove viral misinformation, prevent political candidates from spreading inaccurate information and universally enforce rules about voter suppression, specifically calling out President Donald Trump.
The effort by the Biden campaign comes after Facebook refused to take action on a post from Trump that other social media platforms, including Twitter, slapped a warning on. Twitter flagged and hid Trump’s tweet that in part said “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” saying it violated the company’s policy on “glorifying violence.”
Facebook responded by saying that elected officials should set rules they can follow.
“Just as they have done with broadcast networks — where the U.S. government prohibits rejecting politicians’ campaign ads — the people’s elected representatives should set the rules, and we will follow them. There is an election coming in November and we will protect political speech, even when we strongly disagree with it,” the company said in an unsigned statement.
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