Kara Swisher sat down with Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. It did not go well:
Swisher: Okay. “Sandy Hook didn’t happen” is not a debate. It is false. You can’t just take that down?
Zuckerberg: I agree that it is false.
I also think that going to someone who is a victim of Sandy Hook and telling them, “Hey, no, you’re a liar” — that is harassment, and we actually will take that down. But overall, let’s take this whole closer to home…
I’m Jewish, and there’s a set of people who deny that the Holocaust happened. I find that deeply offensive. But at the end of the day, I don’t believe that our platform should take that down because I think there are things that different people get wrong. I don’t think that they’re intentionally getting it wrong, but I think—
Swisher: In the case of the Holocaust deniers, they might be, but go ahead.
Zuckerberg: It’s hard to impugn intent and to understand the intent. I just think, as abhorrent as some of those examples are, I think the reality is also that I get things wrong when I speak publicly. I’m sure you do. I’m sure a lot of leaders and public figures we respect do too, and I just don’t think that it is the right thing to say, “We’re going to take someone off the platform if they get things wrong, even multiple times.”
You know who isn’t coming into any argument in good faith? Holocaust deniers. Big tech’s inability to grasp what their moral obligation is given the power and influence they now have is one of the biggest crisis facing us today. They simply don’t want the responsibility for what they’ve built.