Today, Nick Clegg was on the Andrew Marr show where he was quizzed by Andrew Marr on Facebook’s role in preventing “fake news” on its platform with an emphasis on the upcoming US elections in November.
You can see how he responded to the question on whether Facebook would require politicians to tell the truth if they were advertising on the platform. He responded with “no” citing that in order for the platform to allow free speech then these ads would need to continue – see the video below below:
Will Facebook fact check ads in the US elections?
Ads from PACs and super PACs would be fact checked, but words from politicians would not be said the Vice President for Facebook, Nick Clegg.
He cited that US broadcasters have the same approach to what Facebook has deployed on its platforms and says that they are “not allowed by law to vet the accuracy of what politicians say”. Marr cites that the fact that Twitter had declared to ban all political ads.
Clegg defends Facebook’s position vs Twitter’s by saying that by banning all political speech on Facebook, you only help the incumbents — and says that opposition would have less of a voice.