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- Nancy Pelosi is not returning Mark Zuckerberg’s calls after a fake video of her slurring went viral on Facebook, according to The Washington Post.
- The Post reported that the house speaker’s refusal to engage with Zuckerberg highlights her frustration with how Facebook declined to remove the video.
- Pelosi called for greater regulation of big tech following the video spreading like wildfire.
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Nancy Pelosi is reportedly ghosting Mark Zuckerberg.
According to a report in The Washington Post, the house speaker has ignored the Facebook CEO’s efforts to make contact after a fake video of her slurring went viral on the social network.
Facebook refused to remove the video, citing freedom of speech. The company did, however, downrank versions of the clip, which slows down Pelosi’s speech at a Center for American Progress event in May to make it sound like she is slurring.
The Post said Pelosi has not returned Zuckerberg’s call or reached out to him personally, according to two people familiar with the matter. It reflects her frustration with how Facebook handled the matter, the sources added, and her lack of appetite to hear his explanation.
Her staff and Zuckerberg’s have been in contact, the Post added. Both Facebook and Pelosi’s office declined to comment when contacted by the newspaper.
In the days after Facebook failed to remove the video, Pelosi suggested that the firm’s decision had convinced her it knowingly enabled Russian election interference in 2016.
Reuters
"I thought it was unwittingly, but clearly they wittingly were accomplices and enablers of false information to go across Facebook," she said last month.
Pelosi later doubled down by calling for regulation of the internet giants. "Unwarranted, concentrated economic power in the hands of a few is dangerous to democracy – especially when digital platforms control content. The era of self-regulation is over," she tweeted.
The Post’s report about Pelosi giving Zuckerberg the cold shoulder came as a fake video of the Facebook CEO surfaced on Instagram. It was created as part of an exhibit called "Spectre" for the Sheffield Doc Fest, a documentary festival in the UK.
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Jake Kanter)