Scarborough Blasts ‘Stupid’ Republicans for Failing to Hold Facebook Liable for Hate Speech: ‘It’s Anti-American’
MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough blasted “stupid” Republicans on Wednesday for failing to regulate hate speech on Facebook, saying Congress should hold the platform “personally responsible” for acts of violence.
“Hey, you know what I’m going to do?” Scarborough said in a sarcastic rant. “I’m going to buy some property in Manhattan, and I’m just going to clear it out. I’m going to open up the gates and people can do whatever they want to do there, and I’ve got no responsibility! They’re the ones that are doing it inside my gates. I just open up the gates and let them come.”
“If people come and they dump toxic sewage, and it seeps into the water supply and I make $86 billion like Mark Zuckerberg, by allowing people to come in and just do whatever they’re going to do on my 500 acres, I’d be held liable,” he added.
Scarborough cited the alleged gunman in a San Diego synagogue shooting last year who used Facebook to share links to an online message board, and the anti-government “Boogaloo” group, as examples of violent speech the platform had failed to crack down on. The website said on Tuesday that it was removing pages related to the Boogaloo movement after two police officers were killed in June by an alleged adherent of the group.
“Think about all of the anti-Semitism, all of the holocaust deniers, all that thrive on Facebook,” Scarborough said. “People get killed in synagogues, but Facebook’s not liable, even if you can trace these people back to their Facebook pages. My God!”
Scarborough added that “stupid” Republicans should allow for the company to be held liable, but without “censoring” content. Republicans including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) have proposed rolling back what are known as Section 230 protections, which would allow users to sue the companies for content published by their users. Scarborough didn’t describe how an alternative might work.
“Congress has got to hold them personally responsible,” Scarborough said. “And no, right-wingers, we don’t want you, as a centralized state, to figure out how to censor a private company, OK? I know that you’re stupid, because if you say that, you’re an idiot and you know nothing about our country. We simply want you to lift the immunity and hold them to the same account that small business owners are held.”
“There’s no reason they should have that waiver,” he added. “It’s anti-American. It’s hurting our politics. It’s hurting our culture.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
