Facebook's Zuckerberg: People need to make their own judgements on political ads - CNET

Facebook has faced repeated criticism for its policy against fact-checking advertisements from politicians , but CEO Mark Zuckerberg is again defending the social network's decision. In an interview that aired Monday, Zuckerberg said that it's important for people to judge for themselves what politicians are saying. 

"What I believe is that in a democracy, it's really important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying, so they can make their own judgments," Zuckerberg told CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King. "And, you know, I don't think that a private company should be censoring politicians or news." (Editors' note: CNET is owned by CBS.)

Zuckerberg has been defending the social network's controversial approach to political speech as it tries to strike a balance between free speech and combating misinformation amid elections . Facebook faces mounting pressure to do more to stop misinformation, hate speech and other offensive content on the world's largest social network, which has 2.5 billion users. The company has also faced allegations that it censors conservative speech , which it has repeatedly denied.  

Zuckerberg, who was being interviewed alongside his wife, Priscilla Chan, also acknowledged having dinner with President Donald Trump at the White House in October. Zuckerberg said they talked about a "number of things" that were on the president's mind but didn't offer specifics, saying it was a "private discussion."

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for additional comment. 

Originally published Dec. 2 at 6:44 a.m. PT.
Update, 7:02 a.m.: Adds more details from interview.