Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has come out with an explanation as to why his company chose to neither flag nor delete President Trump’s statements against protests happening in Minneapolis. The statement comes hours after Twitter had attached a tag on Trump’s posts for “glorifying violence”.
Mark Zuckerberg named three major reasons for not flagging or taking down the post. First, Mark said, “Our policy around incitement of violence allows discussion around state use of force, although I think today’s situation raises important questions about what potential limits of that discussion should be.” Second Mark added that the post was not deleted due to the mention of “The national guard”, which the company interpreted as “a warning about state action”, adding that “we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force.” Lastly, Mark said that “The President later posted again, saying that the original post was warning about the possibility that looting could lead to violence.”
He also took a jab at Twitter by saying that the company’s policies are different from its rival, and Facebook would delete a post that violated its policies against inciting violence, even if its was newsworthy.
The perpetual feud between Twitter and President Trump seems to be escalating. Twitter continues to flag Trump’s posts for various reasons, and the President keeps posting on the platform. Trump also accused Twitter of suppressing free speech, asking for the removal of article 230 of the constitution which seeks to protect social media companies like Twitter.