#Mark Zuckerberg stands up against censorship

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is coming down in favor of free speech.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is coming down in favor of free speech, and good for him. Too bad other social-media honchos can’t embrace the same principle.

Zuck is refusing to follow Twitter and Snapchat in flagging or censoring President Trump’s social-media posts, even after hundreds of his employees staged a virtual walk-out in protest.

Last Friday, Twitter hid a tweet from Trump that included the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” behind a warning label citing a (rarely enforced) policy against “glorifying violence.” And Snapchat on Wednesday said it would no longer promote Trump’s posts on its “Discover” page — curated content from prominent accounts — because, well, he’s Trump.

Zuckerberg has plainly realized that he can’t go down that road and still claim Facebook is a simple platform.

So while he calls the prez’s remarks “deeply offensive,” Zuck says they don’t violate Facebook’s “incitement to violence” policy.

And it’s better that people should be able to see and judge the words for themselves — Trump’s words or any other politician’s: “We should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” the CEO said.

Posted one disgruntled employee on LinkedIn, “I’m scared for my country, and I’m watching my company do nothing to challenge the increasingly dangerous status quo.”

Actually, letting people read and judge for themselves is how we change the status quo in this democratic republic — not silencing someone just because someone else finds their words “offensive.”