Zuckerberg Fends Off Democrat Accusations After Dinner With Trump

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives before a joint hearing of the Commerce and Judiciary Committees on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 10, 2018, about the use of Facebook data to target American voters in the 2016 election. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg didn’t give Democrats a lot to like during his CBS interview with Gayle King, but lately, that’s been par for the course for the social media game’s biggest player.

Zuckerberg has come under heavy fire from the left, who love to pin some of the blame on him for Donald Trump’s victory in 2016.

It didn’t help that Zuck had a face to face meeting with Trump, which has caused Democrats to push every panic button they could find. This includes Elizabeth Warren, who threw out the accusation that Facebook was going on a “charm offensive,” and proceeded to lay out a corruption narrative.

“Amid antitrust scrutiny, Facebook is going on a charm offensive with Republican lawmakers,” she tweeted. “And now, Mark Zuckerberg and one of Facebook’s board members—a major Trump donor—had a secret dinner with Trump. This is corruption, plain and simple.”

“This is how the government keeps working for giant corporations and the wealthy and well-connected. It’s no wonder that companies like Facebook have been allowed to consolidate economic and political power without any real accountability,” said Warren. “I won’t cozy up to Facebook when I’m president. It’s time to root out corruption in Washington. Until we do, we won’t be able to make any progress on any of the issues that matter to us. And I’ve got a plan for that.”

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That’s rich, coming from the woman who lied for years about her ethnicity in order to score a job and a place on the social justice hierarchy.

During his interview with CBS, however, Zuckerberg denied any kind of charming went on and that no lobbying took place.

“We talked about a number of things that were on his mind and some of the topics that you read about in the news around our work,” said Zuckerberg of the meeting.

“Did he try to lobby you in any way?” King asked, who said that the optics of it didn’t look good for Zuckerberg.

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“No … I think some of the stuff that people talk about or think gets discussed and these discussions are not really how that works. … I also want to respect that it was a private dinner and … private discussion,” Zuckerberg responded.

The truth is, it’s likely that Zuckerberg is only under fire for meeting with the wrong President. Zuckerberg is also known for spending time with Barack Obama during his administration to zero reaction from the left.

At this time, Facebook is currently in the crosshairs of Democrats who seem more interested in turning the social media site into a publisher than a platform. Democrats believe that Trump’s victory was due, in part, to the spread of political ads that had inaccurate information within them. Zuckerberg has been of the opinion that it shouldn’t be up to him or his platform to decide what is and isn’t true, as is the definition of a platform.

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He’s also stated that people should be able to watch political ads and decide for themselves if they are or aren’t true.

In other words, Zuckerberg is siding with the free speech option and protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which, generally speaking, absolves his platform of responsibility for content submitted by its users.

(READ: Zuckerberg Buckles Down: “People Should Be Allowed to Judge for Themselves” on Political Ads)

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