Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is lying when he says he cares about free speech

I’m reading Steven Levy’s book, Facebook. Inevitably, he covers the 2016 election.

I read as the internal discussions are re-enacted. What to do with the Russian GRU hackers not only spreading misinformation, but expertly weaponizing Facebook’s amplification algorithms?

According to the accounts in the book, the discussion was all about free speech and the nuances of the speech vs their policies. And there were endless foot-dragging debates about not wanting to appear partisan. Meanwhile the dude in charge of the discussion was a Republican operative. So, remarkably, as with so many other media outlets complicit in rigging the 2016 election, action was too little, too late.

So, as I’m reading this account, I’m finding myself getting more and more frustrated, and angry.

Why?

Because it was as if these supposedly smart people refused to see what was right in front of them. The issue they were debating had nothing to do with free speech. Mark Zuckerberg, from the very beginning of Facebook, built it to connect real people with real people. The Russian GRU hackers were using FAKE ACCOUNTS! A clear violation of both the letter and spirit of the Facebook TOS.

Kill the fake accounts, kill the posts.

No stolen election.

No free speech debate.

And Elon Musk, you’re doing the exact same thing. Hiding behind a bravado of free speech champion, while protecting the rights of bad actors to create fake accounts to game the system.