GOP Facebook Executive Argued Against Removing Fake News Pages Because It Would Disproportionately Affect Republicans

With 2.4 billion active users, Facebook has become a breeding ground for disinformation. Misleading or outright false allegations played an unignorable part of the assault on the 2016 election and a number of lawmakers say Facebook isn't doing enough to curtail fake news ahead of 2020.

Now a recent Washington Post report detailing Facebook's response to fake news pages after President Donald Trump's shocking victory in 2016 is raising even more concerns.

Craig Timberg reports that when discussing which and how many fake news pages to remove, the former Republican lobbyist in charge of Facebook's DC office—Joel Kaplan—said:

"We can't remove all of it because it will disproportionately affect conservatives...They don't believe it to be fake news."

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone told the Post in a statement:

"After 2016, we made massive investments in new teams and technology to make our products safer and to secure elections. People on both sides of the aisle continue to criticize us, but we remain committed to seeking outside perspectives and building a platform for all ideas."

Kaplan's concern that removing fake news would alienate Conservative Facebook users inadvertently said volumes about modern Republicans.

This does not look good at all.