Once again, Mark Zuckerberg gets it badly wrong

Mark Zuckerberg’s umpteenth mistake has not cost him his life, and instead he is simply the victim to a satirical campaign on Facebook that includes messages accusing him of all kinds of things, including being a child molester or liking black jellybeans, as part of a campaign to challenge his view that social media should not fact check or become “arbiters of truth”.

Zuckerberg’s most obvious mistake in the latest Donald Trump imbroglio is telling others not to do something he’s been doing for years: Facebook not only employs fact-checkers , but has just appointed a kind of supreme court to make decisions in that regard. So using the media to hit out at Twitter, which rather than censoring Donald Trump, instead added a verification link to a presidential tweet, a decision it should have long taken long ago, and did so in a very polite way, given the man’s “merits” (what Twitter should do is close his account) is a colossal mistake.

What is Zuckerberg really saying? Facebook censors whoever and whatever it likes, whether it’s nipples or for any number of reasons, but it won’t censor anything its best customer chooses to post. Other people are censored, but Trump, on the other hand, gets a reassuring phone call.

Zuckerberg’s posturing while refusing to withdraw a Trump update openly inciting violence by using a despicable comment made by a racist Miami police chief during riots in 1967 is a big mistake. Firstly, because opinion polls show that 56% of Americans think Twitter was right to tag Donald Trump’s tweets, while 26% believe Twitter was wrong and 20% are aren’t sure. Secondly, because civil rights leaders say Zuckerberg was wrong and set a serious precedent for other content that may now appear on Facebook. And thirdly, because even Facebook employees have called their boss out, saying they are very unhappy about Trump’s comments and have duly organized protests.

If most Americans, including civil rights leaders and even his own employees say he’s made a mistake, then maybe it’s time he admitted he made a mistake. What more does he need to hear? Maybe Karen Kempner should give him a call. In one of the early versions of a game that I loved many years ago, SimCity, if you did very badly as mayor, you ended up being kicked out after a demonstration of taxpayers led by your mother. I’m beginning to think that for Zuckerberg, at some point, this is how it will end.

Social media are not there to be arbiters of the truth. But they do have a responsibility to take action when certain red lines are crossed, which they actually do on a regular basis in many circumstances. But by backing Trump after he clearly crossed a red line, Zuckerberg has once again put his foot in it. Big time.

(En espa?ol, aquí)

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