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| Jared Kushner |
Will Facebook become a "hotbed of disinformation" during the November federal, state and local elections?
That's the fear of Democratic Senators Robert Menendez, Kamala Harris and Richard Blumenthal.
The trio sent a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on May 12 with questions about its disinformation policy, specifically pertaining to hate speech, discriminatory targeting and the threats such disinformation poses to civil rights and voting rights in advance of the 2020 election.
The Senators said the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already dire problem of online misinformation, especially at Facebook.
"Despite highly publicized efforts to police its platform, millions of Facebook users have received posts regarding bogus COVID-19 cures and conspiracy theories," wrote the Senators.
Zuckerberg's platform also is at odds with other sites due to its "unprecedented and controversial policy of not fact-checking political candidates' statements or ads and allowing them to run false and misleading advertisements."
The Senators asked Zuckerberg if his company is going to change its policy of not fact-checking statements/ads of politicians and their statements about COVID-19.
They want to know how Facebook will deal with content tied to voter suppression ahead of the election, hate speech including misinformation and attacks on Asians and Asian-Americans and whether there's support for the addition of a "person with a high-level of civil and human rights expertise to the board of directors."
They want responses by May 22. Get busy, Zuck.
The son-in-law-in-chief can't guarantee the presidential election will take place on Nov. 3.
Though Donald Trump is hell-bent on re-opening the country, Jared Kushner apparently believes it may be risky for people to go to the polls. While it's okay for Americans to visit bowling alleys and tattoo parlors, it's not okay to go outside to cast a vote.
Kushner told Time on May 12 that he couldn't "commit one way or the other" on whether the vote would take place on Election Day. He added that's the plan for now. Thanks, Jared.
Kushner, who is the president's top advisor on building walls on the southern border, arranging peace in the Middle East and managing supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic, assumes he has power to overturn the federal law that mandates Election Day on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November. He's power-mad.
After a storm of criticism on social media, Kushner clarified his statement, telling NBC News: "I have not been involved in, nor am I aware of, any discussions about trying to change the date of the presidential election."
The boy wonder of the White House needs to grow up. He's not King Jared.
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