Zuckerberg reiterates social media companies shouldn't 'fact check' political speech

MENLO PARK, Calif. (NBC) – Facebook’s CEO said social media networks should not be fact-checking political speech.

Mark Zuckerberg appeared on CNBC Thursday morning and made the statement in response to President Trump’s executive order cracking down on social media after Twitter added a fact-check warning to his tweets on mail-in ballots in California.

Zuckerberg said, “I think we’ve been pretty clear on what I think the right approach is, which is that I don’t think that Facebook or internet platforms in general should be arbiters of truth. I think that’s kind of a dangerous line to get down to, in terms of deciding what is true and what isn’t. And I think political speech is one of the most sensitive parts in a democracy.”

Zuckerberg did say, however, that Facebook already has a program where independent fact-checkers limit the spread of completely false information.

Zuckerberg also spoke about Facebook’s future plans to pursue work-from-home options and how the social media platform is trying to help struggling small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The biggest advantages, I think, are access to large pools of talent who don’t live around the big cities and aren’t willing to move there,” Zuckerberg said. “And there are a lot of people in U.S. and in Canada and ultimately around the world who, I think, we and other companies that go in this direction will be able to access.”