It's clear by now that Mark "Zucks" Zuckerberg has no scruples about allowing false ads to run on his creation, Facebook. Despite pleas that he allow fact-checkers to catch and block blatantly false ads created by supporters of demagogue and pathological liar Donald "Pinocchio" Trump, Zucks has refused to apply Facebook's own policy. After some blatant White (Supremacist) House schmoozing with Trump and other Rethugs, Zucks despicably caved to their false claim that Facebook was "censoring" right-wing voices, allowing Trump to play him. It also helps that Facebook is reaping huge benefits from Trump's campaign and related PACs in the range of tens of millions of dollars.
A new report by Judd Legum illustrates the problem: Trump super PAC "Committee to Defend the President" has been spending millions so far to run false ads that, among other smears, call former VP Joe Biden "a criminal who used his power as Vice President to make him and his son RICH." That's some potent Kremlin disinformation there, Zucks. Per Legum's report:
"This claim is false, according to Facebook's own fact-checking partners. PolitiFact, which is part of Facebook's fact-checking program, wrote in September that 'Hunter Biden did do work in Ukraine, but we found nothing to suggest Vice President Biden acted to help him.' Another Facebook fact-checking partner, FactCheck.org, named Trump's suggestion that Biden did anything improper with respect to Ukraine one of its 'Whoppers of the Year.'"The infuriating thing is that Facebook's own policy is to reject ads that have been deemed false by third-party fact checkers, like PolitiFact and FactCheck.org.
It wouldn't surprise us if Trump threatened Zucks with regulation or other sanctions, and Zucks is using a "freedom of speech" defense for his pro-Republican ad policy. The irony is that Zucks could buy Trump's business a dozen times over, but is happy to kowtow and get those extra sweet millions in ad revenue that are pocket change to him but a threat to democracy for the rest of us.
(photo: Zucks is mesmerized by Pinocchio's charm offensive. via CBS News)
