AOC says Zuckerberg, Facebook bear 'partial responsibility' for Capitol riots

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N. Y., assigned partial blame to Facebook for last week's riots and indicated Friday that Congress' response should focus on holding Big Tech accountable rather than ramping up domestic surveillance.

"He is part of this problem," Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "And Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook bear partial responsibility for Wednesday's events, period."

Ocasio-Cortez, who spoke during a video town hall meeting, went on to argue that Facebook was "trying to do as much damage control as possible, but they knew. Not only did they know but they allowed it."

Facebook did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. Earlier this week, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg suggested that other platforms were to blame.

"Our enforcement’s never perfect, so I’m sure there were still things on Facebook -- I think these events were largely organized on platforms that don’t have our abilities to stop hate, and don’t have our standards and don’t have our transparency," she said during an interview broadcast by Reuters.

However, technology experts have said that a growing amount of evidence indicates at least some of the planning for the riots took place on Facebook.

Ocasio-Cortez's criticism came in response to a question about how to prevent domestic terrorism without enhancing government surveillance or beefing up police resources -- both of which the congresswoman opposed. Instead, she argued, White supremacists had benefited from a lack of accountability for social media giants and Trump's decision to weaken programs targeting their operations.

As a member of the House Oversight and Finance Committees, Ocasio-Cortez will likely continue to play a role in pressing big tech for answers on the impact of their platforms on terrorist networks. During her town hall, she referred viewers to a testy exchange the two had during a financial services heari... (Read more)

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