This week, the United States reached the devastating distinction of over 100,000 deaths to the virus that's upended daily life in the country.
President Donald Trump commemorated that marker with a single tweet on Thursday.
Yet the President posted numerous tweets and even issued an executive order in response to two embedded fact checks issued by Twitter.
The President ranted that social media outlets were snuffing out conservative voices and that these private companies were infringing upon their free speech.
Supposedly in defense of free speech, the President announced he would consider shutting these companies down for using free speech to issue fact checks.
Faced with the threat of shutting down, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg responded to Trump's tweets in a Fox News interview:
"I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn't be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. Private companies probably shouldn't be, especially these platform companies, shouldn't be in the position of doing that."
Facebook has been employing independent fact checkers on certain websites since 2016, but faced heavy criticism from Congress and other Americans for its leniency on fake news in political ads.
Zuckerberg's dismissal of fact checking was instantly met with publications pointing out the importance of it.
People lauded the tongue-in-cheek rebuttals.
Others condemned Trump's attempts to stifle fact checks on social media.
Apparently the President isn't too busy with the pandemic to focus on pettiness.
@WhiteHouse/X
