Senator Elizabeth Warren has again upped the ante in her war on Facebook, and her campaign recently tried to make a bold point about the company's controversial policy to allow political ads that contain falsehoods.
After a minor war of words two weeks ago following some leaked comments by Zuckerberg — regarding how a Warren presidency would "suck" for the company — Warren was back out there coming for Facebook on Saturday once more. The Democratic presidential candidate posted a tweet criticizing Facebook for changing its ad policy, saying, "The Trump campaign is currently spending $1 million a *week* on ads including ones containing known lies — ads that TV stations refuse to air because they’re false. Facebook just takes the cash, no questions asked." She added, "Once again, we’re seeing Facebook throw its hands up to battling misinformation in the political discourse, because when profit comes up against protecting democracy, Facebook chooses profit."
The Trump campaign is currently spending $1 million a *week* on ads including ones containing known lies—ads that TV stations refuse to air because they’re false. Facebook just takes the cash, no questions asked. https://t.co/3gDD6ILJpy
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 12, 2019Facebook replied to Warren on Twitter, saying it was following FCC guidelines that keep broadcast TV networks from censoring political speech, false or not. The company claims it had only approved an ad that had already run on broadcast TV networks, but Warren replied, "It’s up to you whether you take money to promote lies. You can be in the disinformation-for-profit business, or you can hold yourself to some standards. In fact, those standards were in your policy."
Then Warren posted about an "intentionally" false sponsored post that her campaign put on Facebook saying that Mark Zuckerberg had "endorsed" Donald Trump's campaign. The post, though, very quickly admits its true purpose — to call attention to the company's ad policy.
We intentionally made a Facebook ad with false claims and submitted it to Facebook’s ad platform to see if it’d be approved. It got approved quickly and the ad is now running on Facebook. Take a look: pic.twitter.com/7NQyThWHgO
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) October 12, 2019
Things didn't end there, though. Warren continued tweeting on Sunday, as NBC News notes, pointing to Facebook's role in hurting journalism and cutting into ad revenue for other media companies. "Companies shifted their resources and strategies because of Facebook's inflated metrics, costing them money and contributing to job losses," Warren wrote. "We need to do a lot more to hold Facebook accountable."
Your move, Zuck.
Previously: Elizabeth Warren and Mark Zuckerberg Face Off In War Of Online Words
