Ocasio-Cortez: Zuckerberg, Facebook ‘Bear Partial Responsibility’ For Capitol Riot

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) argued during a virtual town hall on Friday that Facebook’s reluctance to deal with radical disinformation on its platform was partly to blame for the January 6 Capitol riot. .

“I think this is directly related to the complete lack of accountability of monopolies like Facebook to democracy,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook are partially responsible for Wednesday’s events. Period.”

The New York representative said Facebook had treated radicalization of white supremacy with “children’s gloves” and referred to Zuckerberg’s evasion of his questions during his testimony before Congress in 2019.

At the time, Ocasio-Cortez asked Zuckerberg why right-wing news outlets with ties to white supremacists, such as The Daily Caller, were labeled as official auditors on the platform and questioned his private dinners with personalities like Tucker Carlson. , the Fox News expert who called white supremacy a “hoax.”

Zuckerberg responded by saying that an independent partner was responsible for labeling The Daily Caller as a fact-checker – which is not entirely true, given that Joel Kaplan, vice president of global public policy of Facebook and former official in the administration of George W. Bush, pushed for the decision. Zuckerberg ignored Ocasio-Cortez’s question about the dinners.

“They are currently doing as much damage control as possible, but they knew it,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Friday, referring to the fact that there were at least 70 active “Stop the Steal” groups on Facebook after the riot. of the Capitol, according to a survey conducted by Media Matters. “Not only did they know, but they allowed it.”

Facebook chief executive Sheryl Sandberg argued that the attack on Capitol Hill was “largely organized” on platforms other than Facebook.

Following the riots, President Donald Trump was banned from the site, Zuckerberg claiming that Facebook had been used “to incite a violent insurgency against a democratically elected government”.

On Saturday, Facebook said it would ban ads for weapon accessories and protective gear in the United States for at least two days after President-elect Joe Biden was inaugurated.

Watch Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks below.