In phony Facebook ad, Warren said most TV networks will refuse ads with a 'lie' but that’s wrong

Sen. Elizabeth Warren escalated her battle to break up Facebook by posting an ad that intentionally included a false account about Mark Zuckerberg backing President Donald Trump.

Warren’s goal was to show that the social media giant allows misinformation by Trump.

"Breaking news: Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook just endorsed Donald Trump for re-election," the Oct. 10 ad began. "You're probably shocked, and you might be thinking, "how could this possibly be true?"

The ad then pivoted to a disclaimer — no, the Facebook CEO did not endorse Trump — before attacking Facebook: "What Zuckerberg *has* done is given Donald Trump free rein to lie on his platform –-- and then to pay Facebook gobs of money to push out their lies to American voters. If Trump tries to lie in a TV ad, most networks will refuse to air it. But Facebook just cashes Trump's checks."

Warren’s post followed an unsuccessful push by the Joe Biden campaign to get Facebook to reject a Trump campaign ad about Biden’s role in the firing of a prosecutor in Ukraine. PolitiFact rated a statement in a similar Trump ad False. Facebook denied Biden’s request.

We decided to fact-check Warren’s claim that unlike Facebook, most TV networks will refuse to air a political campaign ad that contains falsehoods. 

While the Warren campaign cited a half dozen examples in recent years of TV networks or stations rejecting ads, we found that broadcast networks are generally required to run candidate ads under federal law. The same law doesn’t apply to cable networks or to PAC ads. 

Facebook does have a partnership with third-party fact-checkers -- including PolitiFact -- to debunk viral hoaxes and demote that content. But Facebook exempts politicians from the fact-checking program, stating that it won’t "referee political debates" or block a politician’s speech from an audience.

While Facebook drew attention for an announcement in September about exempting political candidates, that had already been Facebook’s policy since 2017.

Christopher Terry, a University of Minnesota professor of communications and expert on political advertising, said that because Facebook is a private unregulated platform, it can do what it wants.

"Because Facebook is its own playground, it gets to make its own rules," he said.

Facebook has set rules about transparency to show who paid for ads. But it doesn’t restrict political content. 

There are rules, however, for television.

Section 315 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934 states:

"If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station: Provided, That such licensee shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast under the provision of this section."

Featured Fact-check

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

stated on April 1, 2024 in an interview on CNN

“President Biden is the first candidate in history, the first president in history, that has used the federal agencies to censor political speech ... to censor his opponent."