Sacha Baron Cohen suggests jailing Zuckerberg over COVID misinformation
Comedian known for rallying against social media platforms says President Biden is correct in accusing Facebook of ‘killing people’
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen suggested on Sunday that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg should be imprisoned, after United States President Joe Biden claimed social media firms were “killing people,” due to the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines on their platforms.
“The President is right — Facebook is killing people,” Baron Cohen tweeted.
“CEOs have been jailed for less. But under US law, social media CEOs have near total immunity, which is insane,” he added.
He called for the law to be changed to “hold Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook accountable for the death they cause.”
“Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated. And they’re killing people,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Friday, when asked about misinformation on social media platforms such as Facebook, Reuters reported.
The President is right—Facebook is killing people.
CEOs have been jailed for less.
But under US law, social media CEOs have near total immunity, which is insane.
Change the law.
Hold Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook accountable for the death they cause.#StopDeathForProfit pic.twitter.com/As1zGlpTs4
— Sacha Baron Cohen (@SachaBaronCohen) July 18, 2021
Baron Cohen, who in recent years has frequently railed against Facebook, shared an edited image showing Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a jail cell, though he made no mention of the latter in the tweet.
Facebook does not usually ban misinformation outright on its platform, instead, adding fact-checks by outside parties to debunked claims. The two exceptions have been around elections and COVID-19.
Since the pandemic began, Facebook has been changing what cintent it allows on the topic and what it bans. In May, it announced that it will no longer remove claims that COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured.
In February, it prohibited posts that falsely claimed that vaccines are not effective or that they are toxic.
Agencies contributed to this report.
