At least one person on the conservative side appears to understand the importance of free speech on social media. President Donald Trump touted the critical importance of social media in the face of a biased liberal media.
Trump praised nationally syndicated radio talk show host of “The Rush Limbaugh Show,” Rush Limbaugh on Jan. 6, 2020 as one of many sources of truth that break through liberal media gatekeepers and noted the importance of social media. “People are getting it,” said Trump. “They really get it, and because of social media and my Twitter. Without Twitter, I think we’d be lost. We wouldn't be able to get the truth out.”
Limbaugh replied that when some people criticize Trump’s penchant for tweeting, “I tell them, ‘Look, it’s the only way he can get his message out.’” So, “I think you’re doing exactly what you have to do given the circumstances presented to you.”
Trump then noted how he has been forced to rely on social media to counteract false stories written about him. “A person reading the story doesn’t know that its false,” stated Trump. So, I’m able to tell ’em through social media. I don’t even call it Twitter. I call it social media, because it goes to everything. You know, it goes to Facebook; it goes to Instagram.”
President Donald Trump later recalled a dinner he had with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whom Trump said congratulated him and told him that he was "No. 1 on Facebook.”
What this means is as of yet unclear, as Donald Trump is not the account with the largest following on Facebook.
Business Insider observed that “As of Tuesday morning, Trump's verified personal Facebook page had 25.2 million likes and 26.7 million followers.” By contrast “the verified personal page of Facebook's most followed person, the soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, had 122.2 million likes and 123.2 million followers.”
It was revealed in late November that Trump and Zuckerberg had met for dinner in October, much to the ire of liberals in the media who had been hammering Facebook for its stance on political ads at the time.
A Facebook spokesman told NBC News in an email statement, “As is normal for a CEO of a major U.S. company, Mark accepted an invitation to have dinner with the President and First Lady at the White House.”
The dinner reportedly took place during Zuckerberg’s trip to Washington, D.C., the same trip in which he testified about his company’s new cryptocurrency Libra and gave a speech at Georgetown University titled “Standing for Voice and Free Expression” where he explained his platform’s commitment to free speech.
