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Facebook's Zuckerberg defends leaving up 'inflammatory' Trump post about Minnesota protests

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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke out Friday evening after pressure from inside and outside his company to respond to a post by President Donald Trump…
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke out Friday evening after pressure from inside and outside his company to respond to a post by President Donald Trump that seemed to threaten that the National Guard would shoot what he called “thugs” protesting the death of George Floyd, who died while in police custody.
Shortly after protesters outraged by the death of Floyd, a black man in Minnesota, torched a police building there Thursday, Trump said in social media postings on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The phrase, once used by segregationist Georgia Gov. George Wallace, is seen as an approval of police violence against protesters. Within hours, Twitter hid the post behind a warning that the tweet violated the site’s rules against “glorifying violence.” The warning includes a View button users can click to go ahead and read the tweet.
But the posts were left alone on Facebook and on Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram, where they racked up more than 64,000 shares and more than 426,000 likes. Zuckerberg took to his Facebook page late Friday defending his decision, saying he’d discussed the matter with his team and chose to let the posts stand.
“I know many people are upset that we’ve left the president’s posts up, but our position is that we should enable as much expression as possible unless it will cause imminent risk of specific harms or dangers spelled out in clear policies,” he wrote. “Although the post had a troubling historical reference, we decided to leave it up because the National Guard references meant we read it as a warning about state action, and we think people need to know if the government is planning to deploy force.

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