Sometimes it feels like a broken record, another morning with yet another hysterical rant from MSNBC's Joe Scarborough pushing wild conspiracy theories about Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg.
Morning Joe bizarrely started off the 7:00 a.m. Eastern hour by actually attacking the social media platform's effort to police radical groups on its site. Co-host Mika Brzezinski noted:
"We are stepping up our efforts against this network and know there is still more to do." You know what, if I could just say, they keep saying that. We know we have more to do. We know. We know. We're going to get better. They've been saying for five years that they know they have more work to do. The blog post continues. "We know that our efforts will never completely eliminate the risk from this network or other dangerous organizations, but we will continue to remove content and accounts that break our rules so we can keep people safe."
Apparently that wasn't good enough for Scarborough: "Well, didn't they already know -- did they just figure that out yesterday?" He went on to demand that Congress take some unspecified action against tech companies:
And I've got to say to Congress, I don't understand why Congress continues to allow people like Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey to make billions and billions of dollars personally while keeping hate groups on their sites. Allowing them to fester and spread. They allow -- that man right there is responsible, more than anybody else in America, for the spread of hate speech and racism and misinformation about a pandemic that's killed 130,000 Americans.
Zuckerberg is more responsible than anyone for hate speech and racism, seriously? Not Antifa members, not racists like Richard Spencer, the CEO of Facebook is worse? The question could also be turned around on Scarborough himself, why does MSNBC continue to pay him $8 million a year to spew hate against anyone he doesn't like?
The anchor eventually revealed his true motive for slamming Zuckerberg -- revenge. Scarborough has convinced himself that Russian memes on Facebook stole the 2016 election on behalf of Donald Trump:
And even now, the President of the United States is generating lies. To try to undermine our election. We know that foreign countries use Facebook first to interfere with American democracy and they do nothing about it! So, if you're Coca-Cola, like, why do you want to ever fund -- which, of course, they're not -- anti-semitism, racism against blacks? As you said, Holocaust deniers, giving them a platform, boogaloo deniers, giving them a platform. And up to this election, giving a platform to people trying to undermine the credibility of American democracy in this election.
Zuckerberg is not the one that needs admonishing here, it is Scarborough, for continually engaging in his own misinformation and hate speech against people who he deems to be his political enemies.
MSNBC's attack of Facebook was supported by Sleep Number and USAA.
Read the transcript below to learn more.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe
07/01/20
6:49 AMMIKA BRZEZINSKI: Facebook has taken its broadest action yet to fight hate crime on its site after yesterday it classified a large number of boogaloo movement accounts as dangerous and banned them. Facebook announced in a blog post that it has removed more than 300 boogaloo Facebook and Instagram accounts, 106 boogaloo groups, as well as 400 additional groups and 100 pages that host content supporting the movement. Facebook said they made the decision because the group, quote, actively promotes violence against civilians, law enforcement, and government officials and institutions.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Well, didn't they already know -- did they just figure that out yesterday?
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. "We are stepping up our efforts against this network and know there is still more to do." You know what, if I could just say, they keep saying that. We know we have more to do. We know. We know. We're going to get better. They've been saying for five years that they know they have more work to do. The blog post continues. "We know that our efforts will never completely eliminate the risk from this network or other dangerous organizations, but we will continue to remove content and accounts that break our rules so we can keep people safe."
SCARBOROUGH: So, why do they know that they can never stop violent people who are racist, who want to kill black people and kill Jews and kill minorities? Why is it that you can never stop that from being on your social network? I don't understand, because, hell, The Washington Post, The New York Times, they don't let people that write racist things and call for the killing of police officers -- Oh, it's because you don't make enough money to police it. Oh, wait a second - You're worth $86 billion, Mark. And you're saying that you know there will always be hate groups and racist groups and bigoted groups and dangerous groups? And foreigners, people who are trying to interfere in our elections and you can't do anything, but here's a half measure? I don't get it. And I've got to say to Congress, I don't understand why Congress continues to allow people like Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey to make billions and billions of dollars personally while keeping hate groups on their sites. Allowing them to fester and spread. They allow -- that man right there is responsible, more than anybody else in America, for the spread of hate speech and racism and misinformation about a pandemic that's killed 130,000 Americans. And for disinformation that is trying to rig the election, to actually undermine the American democracy. And he's doing a half measure, saying oh, we can't do anything about it.
(...)
7:00 a.m. Eastern
SCARBOROUGH: And you're so right, Jonathan. If you want just an example of how irresponsible Facebook has been and how irresponsible they continue to be, look at the fact that a federal official, law enforcement officer, was assassinated by a boogaloo boy, and it's taken them a couple of weeks to actually clean up those sites. You have -- I remember getting texts from friends talking about this "Plandemic" movie that was clearly, clearly a conspiracy theory that was causing real health concerns for doctors who also talked to me about it, saying they are creating a conspiracy theory that are making people believe this pandemic is nothing more than a George Soros-backed conspiracy plot. And they kept it up for months. It got more views than Taylor Swift videos, than Office reunions, but they kept it up. And even now, the President of the United States is generating lies. To try to undermine our election. We know that foreign countries use Facebook first to interfere with American democracy and they do nothing about it! So, if you're Coca-Cola, like, why do you want to ever fund -- which, of course, they're not -- anti-semitism, racism against blacks? As you said, Holocaust deniers, giving them a platform, boogaloo deniers, giving them a platform. And up to this election, giving a platform to people trying to undermine the credibility of American democracy in this election.
