Pelosi rips into Facebook for ‘shameful’ behaviour

Democrat Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi has sent a tsunami of abuse towards Facebook, suggesting the social media giant has zero interest in serving its users.

Speaking during her weekly press briefing, the defacto leader of the Democrat party tore into Facebook’s policies of refusing to factcheck statements made by politicians, facilitating the sponsored misleading of voters by Russian parties during the last election, and cosying up to the current political administration for no other reason than for financial gain.

“I think the Facebook business model is strictly to make money,” said Pelosi. “They don’t care about the impact on children, they don’t care about truth, they don’t care about where this is all coming from, and they have said even if they know it’s not true, they will print it. They have been very abusive of the great opportunity which technology has given them.

“All they want are tax cuts and no anti-trust action against them, and they smooze this administration in that regard.”

Pelosi isn’t necessarily saying anything which numerous people are thinking. Facebook is a profit-making machine and has demonstrated on numerous occasions its executives put money before the privacy rights of customers or the experience of the platform. Pelosi coming out in such an aggressive stance against the social media giant is certainly an interesting twist though.

As a company, Facebook should be a bit nervous about any Democrat momentum heading into the November General Election. Although the Democrat candidate has not been named yet, there are plenty who have been very critical of Big Tech in general and Facebook in particular.

The bookies currently have Joe Biden as the favourite to win the Democrat nomination for the General Election, a man who recently said he would get rid of Section 230, the law that shields Facebook from liability for what their users post. Elizabeth Warren is another who is attracting attention, and she launched her campaign for nomination under the promise she would break-up Big Tech. Bernie Saunders and Pete Buttigieg, two more front-runners, has echoed Warren’s desire to dismantle Silicon Valley.

In years gone, the Democrat party was traditionally the side of the political sphere which would favour Silicon Valley and its disruptive residents. This is far from the truth today, as Big Tech is finding it has few friends sitting on either side of the aisle.