Hundreds of Facebook logos. (illustration) - Yichuan Cao / Sipa USA / SIPA

Facebook played a role in the arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, who was able to make the most of the tools of the social network, concedes a senior executive of the company. But that does not mean, in his view, that the rules have to be drastically changed. In a long message to his colleagues, Andrew Bosworth wonders: "Is Facebook responsible for the election of Donald Trump? "

"I think the answer is yes but not for the reasons that everyone thinks," he replied in the text entitled "Thoughts for 2020", released Tuesday first by the New York Times and then by its author himself. even. The American president “was not elected because of Russian disinformation or (cabinet) Cambridge Analytica. He was elected because he ran the best Internet advertising campaign I have ever seen. End point, "said the leader, considered to be part of the circle of advisers close to Mark Zuckerberg, boss of Facebook.

Facebook widely criticized on this issue

This company has been strongly criticized for not having blocked major disinformation campaigns during elections in 2016. With the approach of the 2020 presidential election in the United States, the group is increasing its efforts to fight against attempts at manipulation on its different platforms. Mark Zuckerberg regularly defends the presence of political messages on his network, including if they contain lies or untruths, in the name of freedom of expression.

Donald Trump's campaign itself did not use "disinformation or scams" in 2016, says Andrew Bosworth. "They just used the tools we made available to them to show the right content to the right people," he said. Since the social network has not changed its policy in terms of political advertising in the run-up to the 2020 elections, "the result could be the same," he deplores, stressing that he himself strongly supports the Democrats.

But, adds the manager, "as tempting as it may seem to use the tools at our disposal to modify the result, I am convinced that it should never be done". "This does not mean that there is no limit," notes Andrew Bosworth, for example, by mentioning incitement to violence. But “if we change the result (of an election) without really convincing the people who will be governed, then we have only a paper democracy. If you limit the information that people have access to and what they can say, then you have no democracy at all, ”he says.

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  • American presidential election
  • Election campaign
  • Fake news
  • Donald trump
  • Facebook
  • World