Democratic Candidate Biden Calls on Facebook to Change Political Speech Rules

Democratic presidential candidate 👤Joe Biden’s campaign published an open letter to Facebook Chief Executive 👤Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, calling for the company to fact-check politicians’ ads in the two weeks ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.

The letter also demanded that Facebook promptly remove false, viral information and that there be clear rules “applied to everyone, including Donald Trump — that prohibit threatening behavior and lies about how to participate in the election.”

In a blog post, Facebook said it would continue to protect political speech.

“We live in a democracy, where the elected officials decide the rules around campaigns,” the company said.

The Biden campaign’s move adds to pressure on Facebook, which exempts politicians’ content from its third-party fact-checking program, to alter its rules on political ads and speech.

Zuckerberg last week promised a review of Facebook’s content policies after the company faced backlash over taking no action on a post by Republican President Trump that was labeled by Twitter Inc <TWTR.N> for violating that company’s rules on glorifying violence.

Twitter also for the first time last month used a fact-checking label on a tweet by Trump about mail-in ballots, causing him to accuse the company of censorship.

“The American people can think for themselves. They don’t want big tech companies telling them how to think,” said Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for Trump campaign, in response to the Biden letter.

In its blog post, Facebook said: “Two weeks ago the President of the United States issued an executive order directing Federal agencies to prevent social media sites from engaging in activities like fact-checking political statements.