AOC Slams Mark Zuckerberg After Facebook Chief’s Bipartisan Outreach

Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) took to the stage at a Saturday Bernie Sanders rally in Queens, where she announced her endorsement of the 2020 candidate, touted the Green New Deal, and railed against Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

“The future, and our future, is in public systems, and it’s in publicly owned systems, because we need to take power over our lives again,” said AOC, adding “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Mark Zuckerberg making decisions over my life.“

.@AOC calls for “publicly owned” and run health care and education so that we have more freedom over our lives than the private sector provides.

“I don’t want Mark Zuckerberg making decisions over my life” pic.twitter.com/N3Sg1PJYMZ

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 19, 2019

Ever since Russians bought $100,000 in Facebook ads which many Democrats claim had an impact on the 2016 election (they didn’t), Democrats have vilified the social media giant for not doing more to stop Hillary Clinton from ignoring several key states the red menace. Of course, Facebook VP of advertising, Rob Goldman, pointed out that the majority of advertising purchased by a Russian ‘bot farm’ occurred after the election and weren’t aimed at any particular candidate. Rather, they sought to “sow discord and divide Americans” according to the Facebook exec. 

Zuckerberg committed the cardinal sin of reaching across the aisle, holding private meetings with conservative politicians, pundits and journalists, according to an October 14 Politico report. Zuckerberg responded to the article by saying in a Facebook post “There’s some press today discussing dinners I’ve had with conservative politicians, media and thinkers,” adding “To be clear, I have had dinners with lots of people across the spectrum on lots of different issues all the time.”

“Meeting new people and hearing from a wide range of viewpoints is part of learning,” Zuckerberg continued. “If you haven’t tried it, I suggest you do!” 

Over three days in September, Zuckerberg came to Washington, D.C., to meet with a several of his toughest critics in Congress. The embattled CEO held a private dinner with Democrats arranged by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), met with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), and huddled with the House lawmakers investigating Facebook and other big tech companies for antitrust violations.

He also dedicated a full day to meetings with Republicans, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and several top Republicans in the House.

The meetings were described as a listening tour, offering Zuckerberg a chance to hear directly from lawmakers, many of whom are working on legislation that could directly impact Facebook’s business. –The Hill

Zuckerberg also defended Facebook’s policy of not fact-checking political ads. Speaking to an audience at Georgetown University last week, he said “I don’t think it’s right for platforms to censor politicians or the news in a democracy,” adding “And we’re not an outlier here. The other major internet platforms and the vast majority of media also run these same ads.”

Zuckerberg also implied that people who criticize Facebook’s policies are not necessarily prioritizing the dissemination of truth, but rather seeking ways to promote their own agendas.

“More people across the spectrum believe that achieving the political outcomes that they think matter is more important than every person having a voice and being heard,” the Facebook CEO said. “And I think that that’s dangerous.” –Newsweek

Meanwhile, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachussets has also taken aim at Facebook, buying and running an intentionally false advertisement on claiming Zuckerberg had endorsed Trump for re-election. 

“We intentionally made a Facebook ad with false claims and submitted it to Facebook’s ad platform to see if it’d be approved. It got approved quickly and the ad is now running on Facebook,” wrote Warren in a Twitter post.

Is Zuck’s ongoing pressure from the left going to push the Facebook CEO to the right? Probably not, but this is moderately entertaining in any event. 

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