Mark Zuckerberg tells his staff that Biden won the election - even as disinformation about the result of the vote spreads on Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg has told Facebook's staff that 'the outcome of the election is now clear' and that Joe Biden 'is going to be our next president' - despite his social media company giving voice to millions of Americans who insist without evidence that the election has been stolen.
Zuckerberg, 36, told his employees during an all-staff call on Thursday that the election was over, and the result certain.
'I believe the outcome of the election is now clear and Joe Biden is going to be our next president,' he said, in audio of the meeting obtained by BuzzFeed News.
'It's important that people have confidence that the election was fundamentally fair, and that goes for the tens of millions of people that voted for Trump.'
Mark Zuckerberg, pictured in February, held an all-staff call on Thursday to take questions
The 36-year-old Facebook founder said it was 'clear' that Biden had won the election
Zuckerberg during the call was asked how he would deal with the new administration, which is likely to be significantly more hostile towards his company than the Trump administration.
Staff said they were worried that Biden and his staff 'dislike you and Facebook'.
Bill Russo, a deputy campaign communications director for Biden, lashed out at Facebook in a series of tweets on Monday night, blasting the company for allowing what he called 'debunked conspiracy theories'.
'If you thought disinformation on Facebook was a problem during our election, just wait until you see how it is shredding the fabric of our democracy in the days after. Look at what has happened in just the past week,' Russo said, going on to list examples that he said showed Facebook was too slow to delete certain dangerous right-wing content.
While Trump has talked tough about harsher regulations on Big Tech, accusing social media platforms of censoring conservatives, his administration has taken little concrete action.
Russo's tweets are among a number of signs that a Biden administration will take a harder line, pursuing Democrats' opposite complaint that social media companies don't delete enough material that they deem questionable.
Zuckerberg tried to reassure his work force, telling them that Facebook and the Biden team 'worry about the same issues,' including Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act - a provision in federal law that immunizes platforms from liability for what users post on them.
He claimed that Facebook was not 'averse' to legislation, reiterating his remarks before the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee on October 28.
He also said that he saw the Biden administration as more aligned with the company on issues including online encryption and climate change.
'We will find ways to hopefully work together,' he said.
Tensions with Facebook are running high, however, amid the deluge of misinformation and lies circulating online about the election and alleged fraud.
On Wednesday Biden media adviser Megan Clasen criticized Facebook for sending out an email to advertisers suggesting the company did not think there was a clear winner in the election.
Zuckerberg said people challenging the democratic results were 'quite unhelpful', and admitted that it was 'a challenge' when Trump himself was behind the disinformation.
Zuckerberg seen at an October 28 Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing
Joe and Jill Biden on Veterans Day. Biden is considered less favorable to big tech companies
'Part of what we're seeing out here are people who are calling for recounts and legal challenges, which, in a lot of cases, is their right and something you see in a lot of elections,' said Zuckerberg.
'But I think it's also quite unhelpful that people out there are raising expectations that there is going to be a different outcome than from what was projected.
'I think it, of course, is a challenge when the president of the United States is sharing some of these things directly.'
The billionaire's remarks came less than three hours after Trump used Facebook to falsely claim that a company that made equipment to tabulate results had deleted votes in Pennsylvania.
That statement, which was also repeated on Twitter, has more than 180,000 shares on Facebook.
Zuckerberg said 120 million people visited its voter information center in 2020, including 33 million on Election Day.
He also said half of all people in the US on Facebook viewed 'reliable voting information' — details about voter registration or election deadlines — 13 times or more.
Half of Americans on Instagram viewed that information 15 times or more, he said, though he did not mention how Instagram had briefly given the wrong voting day to some people.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Facebook spokesperson Liz Bourgeois later updated Zuckerberg's figures to note that 140 million people visited the voter information center.
The Facebook founder shied away from addressing misinformation, only stating that the company's third-party fact-checking partners debunked more claims on Election Day than any other day since the program launched in late 2016.
Zuckerberg is yet to congratulate Biden publicly.
His chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have both posted congratulations to Biden and Vice President–elect Kamala Harris.
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