Facebook hits back at Soros claim of 'special relationship' between Trump, Zuckerberg
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Facebook on Friday denounced allegations by liberal billionaire George Soros that a "special relationship" exists between the social network and President Donald Trump.
“While we respect Mr. Soros’ right to voice his opinion, he’s wrong,” a Facebook spokesperson told Fox News via email. “The notion that we are aligned with any one political figure or party runs counter to our values and the facts. We continue making unprecedented investments to keep our platform safe, fight foreign interference in elections around the world, and combat misinformation.”
The response comes after recent statements Soros made at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and subsequently repeated in an opinion piece for The New York Times.
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"Brad Parscale, the digital director of Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign and now his campaign manager for 2020, said that Facebook helped Mr. Trump and gave him the edge. This seems to have marked the beginning of a special relationship," he wrote in the paper.
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The liberal financier also referenced a White House meeting in the fall between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and President Trump.
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The battle between Soros and the tech giant began in earnest at the World Economic Forum in 2018 when the mogul called Facebook a "menace" to society during a speech. A subsequent investigative report in the Times, which provided a glimpse of the company's vast public relations efforts, prompted Soros' Open Society Foundations to accuse Facebook of spreading "vile propaganda" about Soros -- a longtime target of anti-Semitic smears.
The Menlo Park, Calif., company -- which denied any anti-Semitic intent its efforts to publicize Soros' role in funding some activist groups calling for Facebook's breakup -- has been taking heat from progressives a lot lately.
Last week, Hillary Clinton said that Zuckerberg is "authoritarian" regarding misinformation and that the company intends to help re-elect President Trump.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., along with several of her competitors for the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for the tech giant to be broken up.
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“Facebook will help President Trump to get re-elected and Mr. Trump will, in turn, defend Facebook against attacks from regulators and the media," Soros wrote in his Times op-ed. “They follow only one guiding principle: maximize profits irrespective of the consequences.”