Biden Requests Facebook to Remove False Leading Trump Ads But is Rejected

According to a letter that has been obtained by The New York Times and CNN, Facebook has rejected a request from former Vice President Joe Biden to remove or demote an ad from President Trump’s re-election campaign.

The ad has claims on Biden that have not been backed by evidence.

The Biden campaign’s original request to Facebook, addressed to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, COO Sheryl Sandberg and global elections policy chief Katie Harbath, said an ad by the Trump campaign contains a statement that has not been proven by evidence that the former vice president “offered Ukraine $1 billion to fire the prosecutor investigating a company affiliated with his son.”

“The allegation of corrupt motive has been demonstrated to be completely false,” the Biden campaign wrote, according to a copy of the letter posted online by a CNN reporter.

CNN has rejected to play the ad, with a spokesperson telling NBC News last week, that “it does not meet our advertising standards,” and that “the ad makes assertions that have been proven demonstrably false by various news outlets.”

“Our approach is grounded in Facebook’s fundamental belief in free expression, respect for the democratic process, and the belief that, in mature democracies with a free press, political speech is already arguably the most scrutinized speech there is,” wrote Katie Harbath, Facebook’s head of global elections policy. “Thus, when a politician speaks or makes an ad, we do not send it to third party fact checkers.”
Harbath said the company would take steps to reduce the reach of a “viral hoax” shared by a politician, however.

“That is different from a politician’s own claim or statement — even if the substance of that claim has been debunked elsewhere,” Harbath wrote. “If the claim is made directly by a politician on their Page, in an ad or on their website, it is considered direct speech and ineligible for our third-party fact checking program.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ: FB) mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.