Facebook flagged a political ad that contained a doctored video of Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham proclaiming his support for the Green New Deal.
The ad was the brainchild of The Really Online Lefty League, a left-leaning political advocacy group that opposes Facebook’s ad policies. The ad falsely claimed Graham supported the Green New Deal, a progressive approach to tackling climate change that failed in the Senate in March. As of press time Monday, the video had been marked as false.
The Really Online Lefty League’s ad was eligible for review because it was paid for by a political action group rather than a politician, Facebook spokesman Tom Channick told Reuters on Saturday. The company decided in September to exempt politicians like President Donald Trump from a fact-checkers’ gavel.
WATCH:
Conservatives for a Green New Deal
Watch our new spot as Lindsey Graham leads Republican Congressmen in endorsing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal.
Posted by The Really Online Lefty League on Thursday, October 24, 2019
The group’s ad came after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez grilled CEO Mark Zuckerberg at an Oct. 23 congressional hearing about his decision. Zuckerberg said the New York Democrat might be able to create an ad on his platform suggesting a Republican supports the Green New Deal.
Democratic presidential candidates have criticized the company recently for allowing Trump to make purportedly false claims about former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden himself asked Facebook on Oct. 8 not to permit the president’s campaign to publish an ad exploiting his work in Ukraine.
“It shouldn’t be up to one man or one company to decide for a country what truth in advertising in politics looks like,” Adriel Hampton, The Really Online Lefty League treasurer, told reporters Oct. 25.
Hampton added: “And we need to have a robust conversation around that, which includes where Mark Zuckerberg is not the decision-maker.” (RELATED: Mark Zuckerberg Leans On Free Speech While Defending Facebook’s Ad Policies)
His group spliced together videos to make it appear as if Graham was approving the Green New Deal. Graham does not support the now-defeated legislation, which Ocasio-Cortez introduced.
Facebook faced similar problems in June, when a man manipulated a Facebook video to make House Speaker Nancy Pelosi look drunk. Several liberal pundits expressed their dismay after a Facebook executive said in June that the company has no intention of nixing the doctored video.
Neither Facebook nor Graham’s office have responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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