Meta Global Affairs Pres: We’re Not ‘Truth Police,’ But We’ll Restrict Trump’s Account if He Casts Doubt on Elections

During a portion of an interview with NBC News Senior Washington Correspondent Hallie Jackson released on Thursday, Meta President for Global Affairs Nick Clegg stated that if former President Donald Trump uses “Facebook and Instagram to cast doubt on and delegitimize the upcoming election,” they will limit the reach of his posts and possibly could keep his posts from being reshared and restrict his ability to run political ads on the platforms, but maintained Meta is not the “truth police, never have been, and we’ll never seek to be.”

Clegg stated, “[I]f he kind of sails…close to the wind and tries to use Facebook and Instagram to cast doubt on and delegitimize the upcoming election, we’ll also take measures like letting him post, but not necessarily having that post appear in people’s feeds, possibly removing the reshare button so people can’t reshare his posts, and if he keeps doing that, possibly also restricting his ability to run political ads on Facebook and Instagram.”

In another part of the interview, Clegg said, “There’s a distinction between accuracy and harm. People talk nonsense on the Internet all the time. People say things which are half-true, which are not true at all. We’re not a truth police, never have been, and we’ll never seek to be. What we do have an obligation and a responsibility [to do] is to make sure that people don’t use our apps and our services in a way which can lead to real-world harm, violence, and so on. And that’s where we draw the line.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett