While we're watching the back-and-forth between lawless demagogue and pathological liar Donald "Disinfectant Donnie" Trump and Twitter (the latest being Twitter labeling Trump's tweet glorifying violence in Minneapolis), we can't ignore Facebook's Mark "Szucks" Zuckerberg's obvious pandering to the right wing and to Trump's agenda. In an interview with his friends at Fux "News", Zuckerberg washed his hands of fact-checking the dishonest and vile material posted by Trump and his toadies, saying "Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth."
For the past three years, Zuckerberg has been reading the political winds -- wrongly -- as favoring Rethugs and Trump, and has bowed to their false accusation that social media has a "liberal bias." As Parker Malloy writes in an important article for MediaMatters, Zuckerberg is both dishonest and hypocritical when it comes to fact checking:
"Let’s review the simple truth about Zuckerberg: He’s a hypocrite and a Trumpist. It might seem Facebook has followed this 'free speech' approach in turning a blind eye to Trump’s many lies, but he's shown he’s more than willing to be an 'arbiter of truth' for others. Facebook does fact-check posts, and it does limit their reach and flag violations based on what third-party fact-checkers determine -- but it has also carved out a Trump-sized exemption for politicians." (our emphasis)Malloy cites many examples of Facebook's inconsistent application of their policies that almost always favor Trump and the right wing. Predictably, when it came to "fact checking" after the Russia-aided Trump campaign's false news, Zuckerberg added such partisan organs as the Daily Caller and Weekly Standard alongside the Associated Press, ABC News and PolitiFact to Facebook's "fact checking partnerships."
He's also loaded his top management echelon with Rethug operatives in an effort to please his new friends:
"Facebook Vice President for Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan, the man who reportedly pushed for Facebook to partner with right-wing groups like The Daily Caller and Breitbart, is a former deputy White House chief of staff for George W. Bush. Vice President for U.S. Public Policy Kevin Martin is another former member of the George W. Bush administration, serving at the Federal Communications Commission. Public Policy Director for Global Elections Katie Harbath is a longtime Republican operative and former chief digital strategist for the Republican National Committee."Wishing to cement his ties to Trump and the right, Zuckerberg has met privately with Trump and various right wing leaders to assure them that he's on their side:
"In October, Zuckerberg met secretly with Trump for dinner at the White House. It’s anybody’s guess what the two of them discussed, but there’s only so much time one can devote to telling Trump that he’s 'No. 1 on Facebook.'There's more than a whiff of corruption in Zuckerberg's secret meetings, likely with people that would have influence over whether and how Facebook is regulated. His "arbiter of truth" statement clearly signals he'll be on Trump's side in the upcoming campaign.
Last year, Politico reported that Zuckerberg had connected quietly with conservative commentators, media executives, and politicians in a series of private meetings."
