Facebook executive says he doesn't want to tilt the scales against Trump with ban on false info

An executive at the social media site Facebook decided that the site shouldn't try to hurt President Donald Trump's efforts on Facebook even if they didn't want him to win.

Facebook decided in the past that they will not police deepfake videos and false information, as they had previously promised. By Tuesday, however, Facebook had reconsidered, presumably after an overwhelming backlash. The problem, however, is that it doesn't ban all doctored videos.

"The tech giant’s new guidelines do not appear to address a deceptively edited clip of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that went viral on the social network last year, prompting criticism from Democratic leaders and digital experts," wrote The Post.

An internal memo from executive Andrew "Boz" Bosworth explained that he didn't want Trump to win in 2020, but warned others against tilting the scale.

"I find myself thinking of the Lord of the Rings at this moment," Bosworth wrote, citing the novel by JRR Tolkien. "Specifically when Frodo offers the ring to Galadrial and she imagines using the power righteously, at first, but knows it will eventually corrupt her. As tempting as it is to use the tools available to us to change the outcome, I am confident we must never do that or we will become that which we fear."

The memo went on for 2,500 words and detailed the difficulties the site is facing as they come under fire for allowing false information to blossom. Facebook had promised that it would regulate false news, hiring several news and fact-checkers, but what one fact-checker found is that reports on the false information go ignored or are too slow to stop the information from taking hold on the platform. By the time Facebook ultimately shuts down the false information, it has already spread and been fact-checked by the 24-hour cable news community.

See the details on the memo at The New York Times.