Technology

Hillary Clinton Reveals How She Tried To Pressure Facebook Into Nixing A Doctored Video Of Pelosi

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton head toward the inaugural luncheon during the 58th Presidential Inauguration in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2017. More than 5,000 military members from across all branches of the armed forces of the United States, including reserve and National Guard components, provided ceremonial support and Defense Support of Civil Authorities during the inaugural period. (DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Marianique Santos) | By Staff Sgt. Marianique Santos [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has authoritarian views on misinformation and likely intends on reelecting President Donald Trump.

“Google took it off YouTube … so I contacted Facebook,” Clinton told The Atlantic in a report published Saturday.

She was referring to a heavily edited video posted on Facebook in 2019 that appears to show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her words at a press conference that year.

“I said, ‘Why are you guys keeping this up? This is blatantly false,'” she added, referring to Facebook’s decision to keep the video on the platform while suppressing its spread. “‘Your competitors have taken it down.’ And their response was, ‘We think our users can make up their own minds.'”

The Pelosi video, which is often called a “cheapfake,” was slowed down and designed to make Pelosi sound and look drunk. YouTube removed the video, but Facebook and Twitter left it up. Members of the media joined lawmakers shortly thereafter in condemning Facebook for leaving up the video, which they said could alter the public’s perception of Pelosi.

Pundits cried foul after Facebook argued its adherence to free speech prevented the company from removing the video.

Actresses Bette Midler and Alyssa Milano, for instance, were among several celebrities who complained after Facebook executive Monika Bickert told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in May 2019 that the company determined dinging the video was the wrong move.

Clinton, for her part, said the tech giant’s end game is more sinister.

Facebook is “not just going to reelect Trump, but intend[s] to reelect Trump,” Clinton told The Atlantic before suggesting Zuckerberg’s views on Facebook’s role in society and American politics is “Trumpian” and “authoritarian.”

Clinton is not the only Democrat to express concerns about Zuckerberg’s supposed intentions. Billionaire financier George Soros and Sen. Elizabeth Warren also say that Facebook and Trump are in cahoots.

“There is a kind of informal mutual assistance operation between Trump and Zuckerberg,” Soros said Thursday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Warren made a similar claim in October 2019, telling her Twitter followers that Trump and Facebook are brainstorming ways to thwart the will of the people. The Massachusetts Democrat is running for president in 2020 and is among several candidates who say they are worried about Silicon Valley’s influence on American politics.

Facebook has not responded to a Daily Caller News Foundation request for comment.