Facebook CEO Mark
Zuckerberg said after a meeting with a group of conservatives Wednesday that he values their point of view and that people on the right are important to the social network.
"We've built Facebook to be a platform for all ideas," Zuckerberg wrote
on his own Facebook page after the meeting at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, California. "Our community's success depends on everyone feeling comfortable sharing anything they want."
Zuckerberg invited the group of conservatives to meet with him following allegations Facebook suppresses conservative news from its "Trending Topics." The tech website Gizmodo quoted anonymous former news curators in a story last week.
"It doesn't make sense for our mission or our business to suppress political content or prevent anyone from seeing what matters most to them," Zuckerberg said. "The reality is, conservatives and Republicans have always been an important part of Facebook. Donald Trump has more fans on Facebook than any other presidential candidate. And Fox News drives more interactions on its Facebook page than any other news outlet in the world. It's not even close."
Daily Signal Editor-in-Chief Rob Bluey was among the group who met with Zuckerberg and told Fox News Channel's "On the Record with Greta Van Susteren" that the meeting was a "positive step."
But Matt Schlapp, chairman of American Conservative Union, declined the invitation, saying that Facebook had no interest in talking to him when he asked them how he could best use the platform in conjunction with his group's annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
"They weren't interested in helping us."
The meeting was just a "P.R. stunt," Schlapp told Van Susteren.
"This is an old Clinton ploy: 'We checked it out and everything is fine,' he said. "They are not promising transparency."
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