Technology Facebook co-founder: Allowing false political ads skirts 'responsibility to democracy'

Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes on Friday spoke out against the social network's controversial policy regarding political ads.

© Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes says the company should be broken up. Getty

The social network has faced intense criticism for its rules that allow politicians to make whatever claims they want -- true or untrue -- in ads that run on the platform. Last month, more than 250 Facebook employees signed an open letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemning the policy.

"It's an abnegation of [Facebook's] responsibility to democracy," Hughes said at en event in San Francisco organized by the American Constitution Society, a progressive nonprofit. Hughes, who left Facebook in 2007, is one of the company's most outspoken critics, and an old friend and classmate of Zuckerberg.

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Defends Policy Allowing Misleading or False Campaign Ads

Facebook has come under fire for approving an ad for President Trump's 2020 reelection campaign accusing rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter of corruption.“People worry, and I worry deeply, too, about an erosion of truth,” Zuckerberg told the Washington Post. “At the same time, I don’t think people want to live in a world where you can only say things that tech companies decide are 100 percent true.

Facebook co - founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Facebook is defending its policy of not fact checking political ads or politicians’ comments after CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced withering criticism

Facebook defended its policy of not removing misleading or bogus political ads Thursday following “In a democracy , people should decide what is credible, not tech companies ,” the Ocasio-Cortez asked Zuckerberg whether Facebook would allow a politician to plant intentionally false ads claiming

During a speech at Georgetown University last month, Zuckerberg defended the policy by highlighting the social network's commitment to free speech and expression, versus the suppression of speech. But Hughes said the argument is a "misleading dichotomy."

Hughes was interviewed by Christine Pelosi, a Democratic political strategist and daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. She took issue with Facebook's decision not to take down a fake video of Nancy Pelosi that was altered to make it look like the house speaker was drunk. Hughes said Facebook shouldn't shy away from the challenge of determining what's true or not when it comes to political ads as well as organic content. "It's a fundamentally cynical viewpoint," he said. "They have made a name -- we made a name -- for ourselves by taking on hard problems."

Analysis: Americans Don’t Just Want Facebook to Ban False Political Ads. They Want Them to Ban ALL Political Ads.

Mark Zuckerberg and the communications team at Facebook have been embroiled in controversy over the past few days, centered on whether the company has a responsibility to ferret out false or misleading political content and purge it from the platform. Zuckerberg has been defiant, citing similar policies by Twitter and others, saying it’s not Facebook’s role to police what is ultimately free expression. © REUTERS/Erin Scott Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, U.S., October 23, 2019. The majority of Americans, however, think otherwise. A survey of over 1,600 U.S.

At this time, identified political parties and candidates campaigning in the upcoming election in Argentina will be required to complete ad authorisations and place "Paid for by" disclaimers on all of their newly created ads .

Facebook defended its policy of not removing misleading or bogus political ads Thursday following withering criticism from congressional Democrats who said it could lead to election interference and voter suppression. House Democrats , including Maxine Waters of California and Alexandria

© James Martin/CNET

Mark Zuckerberg

Hughe's comments come as Facebook faces criticism on several fronts, including for data misuse, election integrity and misinformation. In the face of that blowback, Hughes has aggressively called for antitrust action against Facebook. In May, he published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for the breakup of the company he co-founded. Hughes argued Zuckerberg has too much control at Facebook, with a team that doesn't challenge his "unchecked power." So Hughe's says government needs to hold him accountable.

Along with overseeing Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Zuckerberg controls 60% of voting shares on Facebook's board, according to Hughes.

"We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well-intentioned the leaders of these companies may be," Hughes wrote. "Mark's power is unprecedented and un-American."

Facebook takes down fake political ad meant to test its fact checking

Facebook's stance on truth in political ads has been put to the test. The social media giant has removed a 'stunt' ad from a Political Action Committee, the Really Online Lefty League, that falsely claimed Republican Senator Lindsey Graham supported the Green New Deal proposed by some Democrats. A company spokesman told Reuters that the ad was eligible for a fact-checking review since it came from a political action group rather than a politician.The ad was prompted by a line of questioning from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who asked Mark Zuckerberg at an October 23rd House hearing if Facebook would let her get away with posting a misleading ad about Graham.

Facebook could also label political ads with disclaimers that have not gone through third-party fact-checking. Whatever steps Facebook takes, it’s clear that the platform cannot stand idly by and allow politicians to spread disinformation. Yosef Getachew is the Media & Democracy program director at

Twitter’s policy on political ads got it right. Facebook , citing the importance of free speech, said it would continue to allow them, even those with false information. It has banned all political ads to prevent the spreading of misleading information.

In the past few months, Silicon Valley has faced a raft of renewed antitrust scrutiny. In September, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced a probe into Facebook. The investigation will focus on "Facebook's dominance in the industry and the potential anticompetitive conduct stemming from that dominance," James' office said in a statement at the time. So far, 47 attorneys general from around the nation. The DOJ is also opening a probe into Facebook, according to a September report by Reuters.

In his speech at Georgetown, Zuckerberg also reframed the story of Facebook's founding, saying it was partly a response to the Iraq war. On Friday, Hughes said he didn't know where that story came from. "I had no idea. It was new to me," he said. "I went to protests. I never went to a protest with Mark Zuckerberg."

Fake news: Facebook refuses to ban political ads

© LOIC VENANCE / AFP After Twitter banned political ads, the debate focused mainly on Facebook's strategy in this area.

Representatives of the parliaments of nine countries gathered Thursday, November 7 in Dublin for the 3rd international committee on fake news. Representatives of social networks talked about misinformation, the development of hate speech. After Twitter banned political ads, the main focus of the debate was Facebook's strategy in this area.

With our correspondent in Dublin, Emeline Vin

From the outset, the representative of Facebook Monika Bickert recalled the actions of the social network against fake news: hunt for false accounts, purposes of promotions on political ads. But she ruled out their ban, whether true or false: "We are not the police of the world and we do not remove content simply because they are fake. We do not have to determine, in the place of the citizens, what they can or can not see in terms of veracity on the part of their politicians. In the audience of politicians, there is a high probability that at least one person knows if something is wrong, and spread the word!

→ See also: Twitter ban political ads, mixed reactions in the United States

This argument was quickly defeated by US Senator David Cicilline due to the micro-targeting of advertisements offered by Facebook. "Politicians can micro-target their ads with Facebook," he said. For example, to men, 55 to 75, who drive trucks and watch Fox News. This strongly limits the dissemination of certain publications. True or false ? "There are limits in accuracy, but yes, that's true," said Monika Bickert.

At the end of the day, parliamentarians pledged to propose laws in their respective countries to put in place a moratorium on micro-targeted false ads. An undated commitment but the participants hope that it will push the giants of the net to act.