{"id":644200,"date":"2019-05-30T09:52:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T09:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"
\"Nancy<\/div>

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednes"},"modified":"2019-05-30T09:52:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T09:52:53","slug":"nancy-pelosi-facebooks-refusal-to-remove-video-shows-it-enabled-russian-election-meddling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/05\/30\/nancy-pelosi-facebooks-refusal-to-remove-video-shows-it-enabled-russian-election-meddling\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Pelosi: Facebook\u2019s refusal to remove video shows it enabled Russian election meddling"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Nancy<\/div>\n

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that Facebook\u2019s refusal to remove a heavily edited video that attempted to make her look incoherent had convinced her the company knowingly enabled Russian election interference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen something like Facebook says, \u2018I know this is false \u2026 \u2013 it\u2019s a lie \u2013 but we\u2019re showing it anyway,\u2019 well to me it says two things,\u201d Pelosi said to applause at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. \u201cI was giving them the benefit of the doubt on Russia \u2026 I thought it was unwittingly, but clearly they wittingly were accomplices and enablers of false information to go across Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a false video that the Republicans are putting out on Facebook,\u201d the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives added.<\/p>\n

She also said that attacks like those on Facebook also made it more difficult to recruit candidates for public office because \u201cwhy would you subject yourself to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Pelosi\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

NetChoice, an e-commerce trade group that includes Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet Inc\u2019s Google, issued a statement objecting to Pelosi\u2019s criticism.<\/p>\n

\u201cHyperbolic attacks on platforms won\u2019t help solve the tech issues of today,\u201d Carl Szabo, vice president of the group, said in the statement. \u201cIt\u2019s obvious that Facebook is hugely invested in ensuring that its platform won\u2019t be misused to aid election interference.\u201d<\/p>\n

The video of Pelosi was slowed to make her speech seem slurred and edited to make it appear she repeatedly stumbled over her words.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump retweeted the video last week, writing: \u201cPELOSI STAMMERS THROUGH NEWS CONFERENCE.\u201d He later told a reporter the House speaker, who is 79, had \u201clost it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reported last week that YouTube, which is owned by Google, responded by removing the video because it violated company policies on acceptable content. The Post said Twitter did not comment, but Facebook declined to remove the videos, even after its independent fact-checkers deemed the content false.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true,\u201d the Post quoted Facebook as saying in a statement.<\/p>\n

U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russian individuals and three Russian entities with conspiracy to defraud the United States, among other charges, as part of his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election that included widespread use of social media sites to spread misinformation.<\/p>\n

Facebook has been criticized over its content policies by politicians from across the spectrum. Republican senators have accused it of discriminating against conservative viewpoints and suppressing free speech, suggesting antitrust action could fix the situation.<\/p>\n

Facebook, along with Twitter and Google, has denied its platform is politically biased.<\/p>\n

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