(Michael Loccisano / Staff / Getty Images)
CNN’s Anderson Cooper grilled Facebook’s head of global policy management, Monika Bickert over the company’s decision to not remove a video on the platform that was altered to make Speaker Nancy Pelosi appear even more batcrap and riddled with dementia than usual.
During her appearance on “Anderson Cooper 360,” Bickert was pressed by the CNN host over why the video, which has been viewed more than 2 million times, has not been deleted from the social media platform.
“Facebook has repeatedly told Congress and the American people that you’re serious about fighting disinformation and fake news, yet this doctored video that I think your own fact-checkers acknowledge is doctored of Speaker Pelosi remains on your platform,” Cooper told Bicker. “Why?”
“Anybody who is seeing this video in news feed, anyone who is going to share it to somebody else, anybody who has shared it in the past, they are being alerted that this video is false,” Bickert responded.
“We work with internationally certified fact-checking organizations that are independent from Facebook, and we think these are the right organizations to be making decisions about whether something is true or false,” she continued. “As soon as we get a rating from them that content is false, then we dramatically reduce the distribution of that content.”
Cooper then pressed Bickert over whether Facebook had entered the “news business,” questioning whether the company could be trusted to operate and make money by being a place for viewers to turn during major news events.
“I understand it’s a big business to get into of trying to figure out what’s true or not, but you’re making money by being in the news business. If you can’t do it well, shouldn’t you just get out of the news business?” Cooper asked.
“We aren’t in the news business. We’re in the social media business,” Bickert countered.
“Well, you are in the news business,” Cooper fired back. “The reason you are sharing news is because you make money from it. It keeps people watching you and more involved in your site, which I get, and that’s fair. But if you’re in the news business, which you are, you’ve got to do it right and this is false information you are spreading.”
WIBC hosts the Chicks on the Right covered the exchange and offered commentary Tuesday:
Daisy:
“Well, I agree with her; they’re not in the news business. And for Anderson Cooper to say ‘get out of the news business,’ good Lord! Have you looked in the mirror lately, dude? You work for CNN.
Mock:
“Exactly, there is example after example of them dropping the ball and running with fake news; they’re arguably one of the biggest offenders!”
Click the link below to hear more from the Chicks.
