Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg criticized the administration of President Donald Trump on its coronavirus pandemic response, saying he is disappointed with the president.
“At this point, it is clear that the trajectory in the U.S. is significantly worse than many other countries and that our government and this administration have been considerably less effective in handling this,” Zuckerberg said during a live-streamed chat with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert.
Zuckerberg said the new surges of coronavirus cases in July could have been avoided.
“It’s really disappointing that we still don’t have adequate testing, that the credibility of our top scientists like yourself and the CDC are being undermined and until recently parts of the administration were calling into question whether people should even follow basic best practices like wearing a mask,” he said.
Zuckerberg added that the country needed a reset. “As someone running a business, I believe the best way to improve both public health and economic opportunity in this country is to focus on beating this virus first,” he noted.
Zuckerberg also praised Dr. Fauci for his work.
“I’m grateful for the leadership and dedication of Dr. Fauci, who has been working tirelessly under very difficult conditions to help us all navigate this,” he said.
Zuckerberg’s statements come a day after Facebook announced it would introduce a new feature to confute myths about the coronavirus.
“I personally think we need to take this a lot more seriously,” Zuckerberg said. “Our understanding of the disease is of course evolving, and our response needs to be guided by science.”
Hate speech
In June, Zuckerberg said that Facebook will ban hate speech in its advertisements. The company will modify its policies on prohibiting such content.
Facebook’s new policies show that it will prohibit ads that claim individuals from a specific race, nationality, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, caste or immigration origin can bring risks to the health or physical safety of anyone else, Zuckerberg said.
“I am committed to making sure Facebook remains a place where people can use their voice to discuss important issues,” Zuckerberg said.
“But I also stand against hate or anything that incites violence or suppresses voting, and we’re committed to removing that content too, no matter where it comes from,” he noted.
Moreover, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will make more efforts to ensure the protection of immigrants, refugees, migrants, and asylum-seekers from ads that emphasize their inferiority to other groups of people or from ads that promote dismissal, contempt, or disgust targeted at them.
His remarks come after nearly 100 brands confirmed that they would remove their advertising from Facebook for the month of July or longer as part of a campaign called #StopHateForProfit. This movement protests “Facebook’s repeated failure to meaningfully address the vast proliferation of hate on its platforms.” However, Zuckerberg did not give any statements about the boycotts on Friday.
