Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says organizing protests against stay-at-home orders on the social media site is misinformation. The remarks come as some conservatives have taken to the streets.
The Facebook CEO spoke to Good Morning America’s George Stephanopoulos on Monday. He confirmed his site would take a dim view of the protests.
“If somebody trying to organize something like that, does that qualify as harmful misinformation?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“We do classify that as harmful misinformation and we take that down,” Zuckerberg said.
Watch the video:
ABC NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Facebook teams up with researchers to help collect data on novel coronavirus in an effort to better equip health officials and the public moving forward amid the pandemic. https://t.co/goJzt9qVfT pic.twitter.com/A0KqrzT4Ru
— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 20, 2020
“At the same time, it’s important that people can debate policies so there’s a line on this, you know, more than normal political discourse.”
“I think a lot of the stuff that people are saying that is false around a health emergency like this can be classified as harmful misinformation.”
President Donald Trump has defended the protests and even encouraged them. Last week, he sent tweets calling on people to ‘liberate’ Virginia, Minnesota and Michigan.
Each of those states has a Democratic governor. Trump has also criticized them for going ‘too far‘.
Zuckerberg may be sensitive to charges of misinformation at this time. Facebook has been accused of facilitating right-wing misinformation as recently as this year.
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