House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Facebook’s behavior “shameful” during her weekly press conference Thursday.
“My thought about them is all they want are their tax cuts, and no antitrust action against them, and they schmooze this administration in that regard because, so far, that's what they have received,” she told Cheddar during the press conference. “I think that what they have said very blatantly, very clearly, that they intend to be accomplices for misleading the American people with money from God knows where.”
Pelosi and the tech giant, which resides in her home state of California, have butted heads before. Last summer Mark Zuckerberg stood by the company’s decision to keep up a doctored video of Pelosi in which she seemed to be slurring her words. While Facebook defended the decision to keep the video online, other technology companies, like YouTube, removed the content. After Facebook’s decision to let the video live on, the Speaker reportedly refused to answer a phone call from Zuckerberg.
On Thursday, she called the company’s behavior “shameful,” “irresponsible” and said it doesn’t care about the impact on children or on the truth.
Pelosi also noted Russian efforts to use Facebook to interfere with the 2016 election. It has been estimated 126 million Americans were reached via Zuckerberg’s platform.
“[Facebook] didn't even check on the money from Russia in the last election. They never even thought they should. So they have been very irresponsible,” she said. “As you say, these are people that we have known and worked with over time.”
“I think their behavior is shameful,” she said.
The social media site notes on its website that it uses technology and humans to identify fake accounts and aims to “promote news literacy and disrupt the financial incentives of spammers” in an effort to stop fake news.
Though officials have pressured the company to adjust policies ahead of the upcoming presidential election, Facebook has remained resolute. Last week, it said political campaigns may still use the site to target ads at particular groups of voters and has indicated it will not police ads if messages are truthful.
Other social networking sites have created new rules and guidelines ahead of the election. In October 2019, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, banned political advertising from the platform, saying internet political advertisements “present entirely new challenges to civic discourse.”
Google, too, announced that it will limit political ads.
Facebook is currently facing multiple antitrust investigations from the House, the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.
At the time of publication, Facebook had not responded to Cheddar’s request for comment.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
