Zuckerberg fires back at Trump over Facebook’s role in the U.S. election
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg doesn't seem too happy that President Donald Trump bashed his company in a tweet Wednesday morning.
The CEO responded with a defensive post about Facebook's role in the election, and why he feels both conservatives and liberals are "upset" with his company. But he also expressed a bit of regret.
"Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don't like. That's what running a platform for all ideas looks like," Zuckerberg wrote.
Facebook recently turned over around 3,000 Russia-linked ads to congressional committees investigating Moscow's influence over the 2016 presidential election. Those ads have been described as divisive, often pro-Trump, and often anti-Hillary Clinton, Trump's rival in his run for the White House.
Committees are looking at those ads as part of a larger influence campaign allegedly run by Moscow, but Zuckerberg used this message to tout what he feels Facebook did well in the run-up to the election: provide a platform for both candidates and constituents to discuss campaign issues, and help U.S. citizens register to vote.
After he got done writing about the goodness of Facebook, Zuckerberg added a bit of remorse.
"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," he wrote. "Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an issue to be dismissive."
That said, he still wrapped up his post by saying he believes Facebook did more good than bad in 2016.
Colin is Mashable's US & World Reporter. He previously interned at Foreign Policy magazine and The American Prospect. Colin is a graduate from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. When he's not at Mashable, you can most likely find him eating or playing some kind of sport.
