Facebook would not oppose my campaign: Donald Trump

Facebook released a statement saying they would never try to influence an election

Donald Trump
Donald Trump
IANS New York
Last Updated : Apr 17 2016 | 6:50 PM IST

After the news surfaced about Facebook employees asking company CEO Mark Zuckerberg if they could use algorithms to prevent Republican front-runner Donald Trump's presidency, the politician said he is not worried about this possible plot.

He said he thinks Facebook is good and he cannot imagine them doing anything, The Hill reported on Saturday.

Read more from our special coverage on "DONALD TRUMP"

"I am one of their great stars," he said in an interview to "Fox and Friends" television programme on Saturday, suggesting that Facebook would not take any action to oppose his campaign because he is so popular on the social media site.

Trump also commented on Zuckerberg's statement that he gave at a tech conference last week on the Republican candidate's proposal to build a wall along the US-Mexico border.

Zuckerberg, who is an advocate of more humane immigration laws, said: "I hear fearful voices calling for building walls. It takes courage to choose hope over fear. Instead of building walls, we can build bridges."

To this Trump said: "But we do have to have a wall, we need security, we need borders and if we don't have borders, we don't have a country."

He further added: "Well, I never met him (Zuckerberg), I never spoke to him and he never mentioned me by name so perhaps he is talking about somebody else."

Gizmodo tech website published screenshots supposedly showing an internal poll that Facebook employees take each week before a Question-and-Answer session with Zuckerberg.

The screenshot showed four questions that were being considered, with the insurgency against Trump trailing in votes. However, Facebook did not address the screenshot's authenticity. 

"Voting is a core value of democracy and we believe that supporting civic participation is an important contribution we can make to the community," the statement read.

"We encourage any and all candidates, groups, and voters to use our platform to share their views on the election and debate the issues. We as a company are neutral, we have not and will not use our products in a way that attempts to influence how people vote," the statement added.

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First Published: Apr 17 2016 | 6:26 PM IST

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