Facebook Says It Won’t Remove Unflattering Nancy Pelosi Videos From Its Platform
A video that appears to show House majority leader Nancy Pelosi slurring her words will not be removed from Facebook.
The video in question shows Pelosi speaking in a slurring style that some claim shows her as drunk or not well. Supporters claim it has been altered to create the appearance that Pelosi isn’t coherent. She has been accused by President Donald Trump of spreading misinformation about their recent White House meeting, reportedly leading to presidential supporters creating and circulating the video, which has several variations.
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President Trump tweeted out a different version of a Pelosi video on Thursday that showed her stammering. Presidential advisor Rudolph Giuliani is also among those taken in by a Pelosi video. He posted a copy on Facebook, and captioned it, “What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi? Her speech pattern is bizarre.”
Facebook said it would leave the video up, but would downgrade its visibility in newsfeeds and attach a link to a fact-checking site.
An unidentified Facebook spokesperson said of the incident, “There’s a tension here: we work hard to find the right balance between encouraging free expression and promoting a safe and authentic community, and we believe that reducing the distribution of inauthentic content strikes that balance. But just because something is allowed to be on Facebook doesn’t mean it should get distribution. In other words, we allow people to post it as a form of expression, but we’re not going to show it at the top of News Feed.”
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