In a tweet which was also visible on his Facebook page,
Trump slammed demonstrators protesting the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis
as “THUGS” and appeared to promote a violent response by saying, “when the looting
starts, the shooting starts.”
That phrase was first used by a Miami police chief in 1967
to justify a violent crackdown on black neighbourhoods.
Twitter placed a “public interest notice” on the post for
violating the platform’s rules “about glorifying violence,” a move not mirrored
by Facebook.
Online magazine The Verge reported that Zuckerberg held a
long conference call with Facebook employees and addressed accusations that the
social media platform allowed election misinformation and veiled promotions of
violence from Trump.
Zuckerberg told employees he should have offered them more
transparency, The Verge reported citing a recording of the meeting.
But he stood by what he termed a “pretty thorough”
evaluation of Trump’s posts, saying the choice to avoid labeling or removing
them was difficult but correct.
According to the recording, Zuckerberg described being upset
by some of Trump’s recent posts, including the one regarding looting.
“(But) I knew that I needed to separate out my personal
opinion … from what our policy is and the principles of the platform we’re
running are.”
Several Facebook employees have resigned over the lack of action, the New York Times reported.
One said publicly that the company would end up “on the wrong side of history.”
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