‘Except perhaps for Mark’: Internal emails show Facebook mulling fake news plea from Sacha Baron Cohen
It was eight days after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Facebook was facing criticism that a flood of false stories on its platform had helped elect Donald Trump. That morning, Sheryl Sandberg got a policy memo from an unlikely source: Sacha Baron Cohen. In an email titled “Thoughts for the day,” the comedian behind “Ali G” and “Borat” urged Sandberg and her colleagues to follow the…
On August 8, 2016, a day after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook found itself under scrutiny for spreading false information on its platform, which contributed to Donald Trump's victory. Sheryl Sandberg, then the company's COO, received an email from Sacha Baron Cohen, a comedian known for his satirical roles. In it, Cohen urged Facebook to implement fact-check labels and counter-radicalization measures for search terms related to ISIS, as Google was doing at the time.
He also suggested that, if Facebook decided to combat falsehoods, it should consider including Holocaust denial under the category of "fake news," explaining that "fascist movements need to deny the holocaust in order to get new supporters." Sandberg forwarded Cohen's email to five senior executives, emphasizing that he was correct about Holocaust denial.
However, policy chief Elliot Schrage cautioned that they had to decide whether to become a "platform for good" or a "platform for all," giving Facebook the option to extend its standards to require truthfulness and accuracy.
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