Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has dined with Trump at the White House, acknowledged Biden's projected victory in the 2020 election
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden's win in the 2020 election in an internal meeting with employees.
- "I believe the outcome of the election is now clear and Joe Biden is going to be our next president," Zuckerberg said, according to audio obtained by BuzzFeed News.
- "It's important that people have confidence that the election was fundamentally fair, and that goes for the tens of millions of people that voted for Trump," he continued.
- Zuckerberg has yet to publicly comment on the results of the election. False or unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and messages demanding recounts are also pervasive on the platform, some of which are labeled as misleading.
- He went on to condemn President Donald Trump for taking part in sowing doubt in the voting process in a rare rebuke.
- "I think it, of course, is a challenge when the president of the United States is sharing some of these things directly," Zuckerberg said, according to the Buzzfeed News report.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has been under fire from Congress for the social media platform's policy on combatting misinformation, acknowledged that Joe Biden "is going to be our next president."
During an internal meeting with company employees, the CEO, who has dined with President Donald Trump at the White House, acknowledged President-elect Biden's victory in the 2020 election, a spokesperson confirmed to CNBC.
"I believe the outcome of the election is now clear and Joe Biden is going to be our next president," Zuckerberg said, according to audio obtained by BuzzFeed News. "It's important that people have confidence that the election was fundamentally fair, and that goes for the tens of millions of people that voted for Trump."
Zuckerberg has yet to publicly comment on the results of the election.
False or unsubstantiated claims of election fraud and messages demanding recounts are also pervasive on the platform, some of which are labeled as misleading. Facebook has been putting election warnings on disputed misinformation and has blocked more than 2 million ads that have violated its guidelines on elections.
The Facebook founder criticized those claims, saying that, while it is in "their right" to contest the results, he said he thinks "it's also quite unhelpful that people out there are raising expectations that there is going to be a different outcome than from what was projected," according to the BuzzFeed News report.
He went on to condemn the president for taking part in sowing doubt in the voting process in a rare rebuke.
"I think it, of course, is a challenge when the president of the United States is sharing some of these things directly," Zuckerberg said, according to the BuzzFeed News report.
Apart from the election results, Zuckerberg was also asked by employees during the all-hands meeting why former Trump advisor Steve Bannon was not banned from the platform like he is on Twitter. In a video he posted earlier this month, Bannon said he would put the heads of FBI Director Christopher Wray and top US infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci "on pikes" for being disloyal to Trump.
"I'd put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats. You either get with the program or you are gone," Bannon said in the video, which has since been removed from Facebook but his page still remains active.
The Facebook founder defended not suspending Bannon from Facebook, saying the former advisor did not violate enough policies to be banned, Reuters reported.
"We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate certain policies before we will deactivate your account completely," Zuckerberg said, citing the Reuters report. "While the offenses here, I think, came close to crossing that line, they clearly did not cross the line."