Mark Zuckerberg hits back at Trump's “always anti-Trump” comment

Mark Zuckerberg responded to Donald Trump yesterday after he accused Facebook of being "always anti-Trump".

The Facebook chief slammed the suggestion, and insisted that Facebook is working to ensure "free and fair elections" with an online platform that does not  favour one side over another.

The US president had earlier tweeted, "Facebook was always anti-Trump. The Networks were always anti-Trump hence, Fake News, @nytimes (apologised) & @WaPo were anti-Trump. Collusion?"

Zuckerberg said, "Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump.

"Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don't like. That's what running a platform for all ideas looks like."

Last week, Facebook said Russia-linked ads on the website aimed at inflaming tensions around the US presidential election last week, will be given to Congress.

The ads aimed to create discord among US citizens on controversial social issues, according to commentators.

Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook, ''After the election, I made a comment that I thought the idea misinformation on Facebook changed the outcome of the election was a crazy idea.

''Calling that crazy was dismissive and I regret it. This is too important an issue to be dismissive.''

Zuckerberg insisted that his company's biggest role in the election was to serve as a platform for candidates and citizens to communicate directly with one another.

Incidentally, Zuckerberg's comments come only  days after reports that the former US president Barack Obama personally warned the Facebook CEO about the dangers of fake news.

The Washington Post noted in a report that "Obama made a personal appeal to Zuckerberg to take the threat of fake news and political disinformation seriously."