Las Vegas (United States) (AFP)

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", first published on Tuesday 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. says the leader, considered to be part of the circle of advisers close to Mark Zuckerberg, boss of Facebook.

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.

Facebook, on the other hand, refuses to follow in the footsteps of Twitter, which launched a block in the pond last October by announcing that it no longer wants to accept any advertising of a political nature, anywhere in the world.

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.

Google, for its part, has taken an intermediate position, continuing to allow political advertisements while strengthening the rules prohibiting the publication of manifestly false messages (such as a false polling date) or by preventing ultra-specific targeting of voters.

- Temptation -

Donald Trump's campaign itself did not use "disinformation or scams" in 2016, says Bosworth. "They just used the tools we gave 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 Mr. Bosworth, mentioning, for example, incitement to violence.

But "if we change the result (of an election) without really convincing the people who will be governed, then we only have a paper democracy. If we limit the information to which people have access and what they can say, then we have no democracy at all, "he said.

With his message initially intended to remain internal, Mr. Bosworth said he wanted to "initiate a discussion" on the criticisms regularly raised in the press.

He recognizes in particular that the group has been slow to react to the problems of data security, misinformation and foreign interference and that it could do better with regard to the growing political polarization of network users and the transparency of operation of its algorithms.

© 2020 AFP