Mr. Zuckerberg faced another congressional grilling on Tuesday. It appeared the Facebook CEO was doing a decent enough job of answering questions honestly, but he definitely had a few slip ups. His team of lawyers would definitely take a few mulligans if they could. One of his responses gave Ben Shapiro the chance to make the internet melt down.
Shapiro pointed out a statement Zuckerberg made during his testimony.
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) asked, "We’ve been told that platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like are neutral platforms, and the people who own and run them for profit … bore no responsibility for the content. Do you agree now that Facebook and other social media platforms are not neutral platforms but bear some responsibility for the content?"
Zuck's response? "I agree that we’re responsible for the content."
This is when Shapiro brought the heat:
Congratulations, Zuckerberg. You’re now a publisher and not a platform, and subject to legal liability that attaches. Good luck. https://t.co/QVre5Z2WrJ
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) April 10, 2018
In a piece on The Daily Wire, Shapiro stated,"Zuckerberg may have just opened himself up to a world of legal hurt. Platforms are generally not held legally responsible for the content posted on those platforms — so liability issues ranging from copyright violation to slander aren’t serious concerns for platforms ... But that’s not the case with publishers. Publishers are responsible for the content that is added to their platforms ... If the same were held to be true for Facebook, the company would immediately become subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in legal liability."
At this point the internet was going nuts in response to Shapiro's tweet.
Facebook's lawyers just had a collective aneurysm
— ROCK THUNDERPUNCH (@RokThunderpunch) April 10, 2018
He has no idea what he just did.
— Robert Caruso (@robertcaruso) April 10, 2018
Zuckerberg should fire his legal team. They did a terrible job of preparing him for today. He knew exactly what he was doing and didn't care!
— Mary VanHorton (@VanhortonM) April 10, 2018
Interesting that @SenTedCruz was able to get #Zuckerberg to admit that ALL silicon based tech companies are "extremely left leaning" aka far left extremists that are controlling the narrative. #TuesdayThoughts #PrayForAmerica and our #ConstitutionalRepublic
— Everday Family (@L1feIsN0w) April 11, 2018
If someone is bullied on Facebook and commits suicide is Facebook liable to be sued for the death?
— DBMWalker (@dbmwalker) April 11, 2018
So who wants to file the class action suit on behalf of conservatives? @facebook
— lady for liberty (@sdkirk57) April 11, 2018
There go Facebook’s protections under section 230 of the Communication Decency Act.
— Alex Ward (@poolboy88) April 10, 2018
So when someone shares hate or false information on Facebook, it's like Facebook shared it.
— idrawrobots (@idrawrobots) April 10, 2018
Honestly i love that this precedent exists
It basically has the potential to cripple social media companies that moderate their content— mayu (@Hiya_itsMaya) April 10, 2018
This just boosted the lawsuits against conservative censorship...
— Caleb (@CalebHarrison2) April 10, 2018
This wasn't the only slip up by Zuck. He also described Silicon Valley as "an extremely left-leaning place."
It's pretty clear that Zuckerberg responded to the 2016 election by turning Facebook into a political outlet. Now he is paying for that decision.
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