As Facebook COO Sherly Sandberg completes her desperate DC walk of shame in an attempt to appease Mark Warner and the rest of the Facebook-scapegoaters, she gave Axios an interview to explain (strawman) what the biggest social media platform in the world will do about the Russian menace that has Made America Divided Again (allegedly)...
Sandberg said she had "very productive" meetings yesterday with congressional leaders investigating Russian efforts to use social media to meddle with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Sandberg told Axios at a live event today that Facebook owes the American people an apology ("Not just an apology, but determination") for their role in enabling Russian interference during the election.
Headline Dump:
- *SANDBERG: HILLARY CLINTON WINNING WAS IMPORTANT TO ME
- *SANDBERG: FACEBOOK HAS `ENOURMOUS' RESPONSIBILITY TO USERS
- *SANDBERG: ALL RUSSIA-LINKED ADS SHOULD BE RELEASED
- *SANDBERG: IT IS CONGRESS' DECISION WHEN TO RELEASE RUSSIA ADS
- *SANDBERG: WE ARE CO-OPERATING WITH OTHER COMPANIES ON ADS
- *SANDBERG: INVESTING IN MACHINE LEARNING TO COMBAT RUSSIA ADS
- *SANDBERG: WE HOPE TO SET A `NEW STANDARD' FOR TRANSPARENCY
- *SANDBERG: THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN `BAD ACTORS' AGAINST DEMOCRACY
- *SANDBERG: HAVE GIVEN CONGRESS ADS AND THE PAGES THEY LINKED TO
- *SANDBERG: WE WILL GIVE CONGRESS ALL THE MATERIAL THEY WANT
- *SANDBERG: DIVISIVENESS IS NOT A REASON TO TAKE DOWN CONTENT
- *SANDBERG: IF CONTENT IS FROM REAL ACCOUNTS, IT SHOULD STAY UP
- *SANDBERG: WE WANT HELP FROM THE US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
- *SANDBERG: DECEPTIVE, DIVISIVE ADS A NEW KIND OF THREAT
- *SANDBERG: WE ARE `DETERMINED' TO DEFEAT FOREIGN INTERVENTION
- *SANDBERG: `FAKE NEWS' IS INFORMATION THAT IS FACTUALLY FALSE
- *SANDBERG: FOCUS OF OUR EFFORTS IS ON GOING AFTER FAKE ACCOUNTS
- *SANDBERG: FACEBOOK SHOULD NOT BE THE ONE FLAGGING INFO AS FALSE
- *SANDBERG DOESN'T ADDRESS RUSSIA-TRUMP CAMPAIGN COLLUSION
And then she went "off-topic"...
- *SANDBERG: THE WORLD IS STILL RUN BY MEN, WE NEED TO DO BETTER
- *SANDBERG: DIVERSITY IS KEY TO ECONOMIC GROWTH
- *SANDBERG: PEOPLE AROUND HARVEY WEINSTEIN SHOULD HAVE SPOKEN OUT
- *SANDBERG: OCULUS GO $199 PRICE IS `STILL EXPENSIVE'
Some key excerpts...
"Things happened on our platform in this election that should not have happened, especially troubling foreign interference in a democratic election. We know we have a responsibility to do everything we can to prevent this kind of abuse."
"We really have to go after fake accounts,"
"In my meetings with the government yesterday, I talked about how we're fully cooperating with their investigation - Congress and the special counsel - we're giving our piece, but they can understand the whole picture. I reiterated that it's important they get the whole picture and explain that transparently to the American public. When they wanted to make a decision, we stand ready to help them."
"When you cut off speech for one person, you cut off speech for other people," she said. "The responsibility of an open platform is to let people express themselves. We don't check the information people put on Facebook before they run it, and I don't think anyone should want us to do that."
Something there for everyone - Democrats will be happy that she is cracking down on Russians... but sane realists will perhaps be appeased by her admission that censoring anything that you disagree with is not a good policy path to take.
Full interview below:
http://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php