Mark Zuckerberg posted a lengthy statement on Facebook Friday night responding to President Donald Trump’s posts about Minneapolis and the killing of George Floyd.

Trump’s tweet saying “when the looting starts the shooting starts” was flagged by Twitter for violating the site rules on glorifying violence. He also posted it to Facebook, where it has not been similarly flagged.

Zuckerberg wrote tonight, “I’ve been struggling with how to respond to the President’s tweets and posts all day. Personally, I have a visceral negative reaction to this kind of divisive and inflammatory rhetoric. This moment calls for unity and calmness, and we need empathy for the people and communities who are hurting. We need to come together as a country to pursue justice and break this cycle.”

He went on to defend Facebook’s decision to leave Trump’s post up:

I know many people are upset that we’ve left the President’s posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies. We looked very closely at the post that discussed the protests in Minnesota to evaluate whether it violated our policies. Although the post had a troubling historical reference, we decided to leave it up because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force. Our policy around incitement of violence allows discussion around state use of force, although I think today’s situation raises important questions about what potential limits of that discussion should be.

Zuckerberg emphasized again he disagrees “strongly” with the president, but says they’re keeping it up because “ultimately accountability for those in positions of power can only happen when their speech is scrutinized out in the open.”

You can read his full post here.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/2zIKDYH