Liberal activists at CREDO Action were slamming Facebook Friday (May 24) for not taking down a doctored video of House speaker Nancy Pelosi that went viral.
The video, which has been viewed millions of times, according to CNN, had been slowed to make Pelosi seem drunk or "out of it," the characterization leveled by President Trump following an aborted meeting with Democrats, including Pelosi, about funding infrastructure upgrades. Pelosi had said following the meeting that the President could use an "intervention" by staffers or family or friends.
"This is a stunning abdication of responsibility from a company with a well-earned reputation for facilitating the spread of malicious right-wing conspiracy theories," said CREDO Action Co-Director Josh Nelson in a statement. "Facebook's decision not to remove this video is a wink and nod to foreign actors and conspiracy theorists around the globe."
"Facebook has a responsibility to protect its users from deliberately misleading political propaganda," Nelson added. "This is just the latest episode in the company's long history of utterly failing to live up to that responsibility."
Asked about the altered video Friday and whether that signaled his feud with her had gone too far, the President said he didn't know about the video, but said that the suggestion he had attacked her was fake news and that she had made "horrible statements" and said "terrible things" that weren't true, so he "just responded in kind," which suggests he countered with horrible statements and terrible things that weren't true.
A Facebook spokesperson was not available for comment, but the issue illustrates the challenge of social media sites under pressure from Washington to police their content, while just what content should come down depends on who is doing the pressing.
