Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has dismissed comments made by US President Donald Trump that the site has always been against him, accusing the social media network of “collusion” on Twitter, branding it “anti-Trump”. However, Mark Zuckerberg in a post Wednesday directly responding to Donald Trump’s tweet expressed remorse for his earlier statements rejecting concerns about the dangers of propaganda and fake news on Facebook. “After the election, I made a comment that I thought the idea misinformation on Facebook changed the outcome of the election was a crazy idea. Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it….This is too important an issue to be dismissive” Zuckerberg argued.
Facebook’s role in the election has faced close scrutiny in recent weeks following the company’s disclosure that a Russian-based influence operation had purchased $100,000 in ads to promote divisive political and social messages during the presidential campaign, prompting the company to agree last week to provide the contents of 3,000 ads to Congress. The Russian ads spread controversial views on topics such as immigration and race and promoted 470 “inauthentic” pages and accounts, according to Facebook’s own description.
The disclosure has added fuel to the findings of US intelligence officials that Russia was involved in influencing Trump’s race against Hillary Clinton. Facebook, Twitter and Google have been asked to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee on 1 November about the allegations of Russian interference. Facebook and Google have confirmed they have received invitations to attend the committee hearing, but none of the social media giants have yet said they will be present.
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