Hillary Clinton has slammed Facebook for allowing doctored videos of Nancy Pelosi to go viral across the platform, despite being altered to make the House speaker appear disoriented.
The former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic nominee called out the social media company during a commencement address at Hunter College in New York on Thursday, while addressing the spread of fake news online.
“The big social media platforms know their systems are being manipulated by foreign and domestic actors to sow division, promote extremism and spread misinformation — but they won’t get serious about cleaning up their platforms unless consumers demand it,” she said, before digging into Facebook.
“We saw why it’s so important just last week, when Facebook refused to take down a fake video of Nancy Pelosi,” Ms Clinton said. “It wasn’t even a close call. The video is sexist trash. And YouTube took it down but Facebook kept it up.”
The videos of Ms Pelosi have sparked outcry and backlash from top Democrats and other critics, who say major social media platforms need to address an ever-increasing rise in misinformation.
Donald Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have both shared doctored clips of Ms Pelosi in recent days, which some have said make her appear intoxicated or physically impaired.
Ms Pelosi herself has also slammed Facebook following the videos surfacing online, saying the platform is acting as “willing enablers of the Russian interference in our election.”
“We have said all along, poor Facebook, they were unwittingly exploited by the Russians,” Ms Pelosi said. “I think wittingly, because right now they are putting up something that they know is false. I think it’s wrong. I can take it. … But [Facebook is] lying to the public.”
In deciding to take down the altered videos from its platform, Youtube — which is owned by Google — noted the clips were in violation of its policies.
However, in a statement provided to media outlets, Facebook said it does not “have a policy that stipulates that the information you post on Facebook must be true.”
Several of the doctored videos posted to Facebook contain information on sidebars noting the information contained in the clips may not be accurate.
On Wednesday, Ms Clinton called on Americans to “send a message to Facebook that those who are in Facebook’s communities would really like Facebook to pay attention to false and doctored videos before we are flooded with them over the next months.”
