Facebook does not have 'secret deal' with Trump, says Mark Zuckerberg

'Actually, the whole idea of a deal is pretty ridiculous'

Adam Smith
Tuesday 21 July 2020 09:50 BST
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said there is “no deal” between him and president Donald Trump.

Facebook has seen a growing boycott from brands that argue the company has not done enough to tackle hate speech on its platform.

For many, this includes Facebook’s decision to allow Mr Trump’s to post unimpeded, in contrast to Twitter, which has added labels to the president’s tweets.

“I’ve heard this speculation, too, so let me be clear: There's no deal of any kind,” Zuckerberg told Axios.

“Actually, the whole idea of a deal is pretty ridiculous.”

“I do speak with the president from time to time, just like I spoke with our last president and political leaders around the world,” Zuckerberg also said.

Zuckerberg’s remarks come after he reportedly told employees people thought Facebook was “too sympathetic or too close in some way to the Trump administration.“

”[W]e need to separate out the fact of giving people some space for discourse, from the positions that we have individually, where I feel like the company and I personally have been“, he said.

Zuckerberg also cited many issues where he disagreed with the president, such as immigration policies, the withdrawal from the Paris agreement, as well as his “divisive and inflammatory rhetoric.”

Criticisms of Facebook being too close to the right-wing of US politics have dogged the company for years. In 2016, Zuckerberg met with 16 prominent conservatives, including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, to alleviate concerns the company was biased against conservatives.

In 2019, it was pointed out that the company’s vice-president of global public policy at Facebook, which manages Facebook’s relationship with global policy makers, and its vice-president of US public policy and former chairman Kevin Martin, both worked under president Bush.

Facebook was accused of spending large amounts of money on a “closed-door charm offensive with Republican lawmakers”.

The notion of whether a deal has been struck between Zuckerberg and Mr Trump is, for some, irrelevant. As the Washington Post’s business reporter Tony Romm wrote on Twitter, “no one said there was a deal. they said Facebook was acting kindly to Trump out of self interest.”

The Independent has reached out to Facebook for comment.

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