Robert Creamer

Opinion contributor

The day after Facebook’s enforcement czar Monika Bickert told Congress about Facebook’s efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation on the platform, the company was reaffirming that Facebook would allow campaigns to buy political ads that make provably false statements.

This policy is a clear and present danger to American democracy.

First, let’s remember that Facebook is not just another outlet for the distribution of advertising content. As Bickert pointed out in her Jan. 8 statement to an Energy and Commerce subcommittee, “Facebook is a community of more than 2 billion people, spanning countries, cultures and languages across the globe.” That’s a quarter of the world’s population.

The firm has massive monopoly power to influence public opinion.

Facebook's real motivation is money

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claims that Facebook has adopted this policy because it is committed to protecting “free expression,” and that the company should not be the arbiter of truth.

In fact, this policy has nothing to do with protecting free expression. Instead, it is aimed at letting Facebook make hundreds of millions of dollars showing ads on its platform, even if they're untrue. In fact, the moment Facebook stops simply allowing others to make posts on its platform and begins taking millions of dollars from them to show ads, the company stops allowing the free speech of others and Facebook itself becomes guilty of spreading lies for pay.

Under his policy, for instance, Facebook would presumably allow a candidate to spend hundreds of millions of dollars claiming that his or her opponent ran a pedophile ring in a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. That outrageous conspiracy theory actually circulated widely about Hillary Clinton in right-wing circles before the last election — but was never circulated as paid advertising. Now, Facebook is saying that if you want to spend a fortune to promote that conspiracy, they are happy to take your money.

In response, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi excoriated Facebook: “They have said very blatantly, very clearly that they intend to be accomplices for misleading the American people with money from God knows where.”

It is true that under federal law, internet platforms like Facebook are not liable for what third parties post on their sites. But Facebook still reserves the right to remove posts that violate its rules, or so-called community standards. In fact, it does serve the cause of free speech for those who post on platforms like Facebook to be subject only to the same limitations on speech that our legal system has determined apply in other arenas of life.

People should be able to speak freely about their views — but should not be allowed to advocate violence or to cry “fire” in a crowded theater, because the exercise of that free speech right impinges on other critical rights.

Sen. Josh Hawley:We might be better off if Facebook, Instagram and Twitter vanished

As things stands now, however, the same does not apply to Facebook when it takes money from a person or organization to advertise their points of view. Once Facebook takes money to promote a candidate or cause, the company becomes an agent of the campaign or organization promoting that message. And once it is an agent of a campaign or cause, it should be held responsible and liable for ads that contain provable lies.

Facebook should be held to the same standards as TV networks like CNN and CBS, since it is really exactly the same kind of broadcast service.

Its refusal to do so opens a massive opportunity for conspiracy theorists and demagogues to spend fortunes promoting provably false allegations with absolute impunity. And the sad fact is that if even the most outrageous lie is repeated often enough, large numbers of people will come to believe it. Donald Trump understands that.

Will we let Trump keep spewing lies?

In fact, Trump has shown himself willing to shamelessly lie about both the most insignificant and monumental questions. The Washington Post counts over 16,000 occasions when he made provably false or misleading statements since he became president. What makes anyone think that he — or his organization — will do anything different in the coming campaign?

Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, is an expert on, and devotee of, social media campaigning. As of November, the Trump campaign had outspent all other campaigns on social media. Facebook provides Parscale with the perfect mechanism to communicate his messages directly to his target audience through a medium that does nothing to check the truthfulness of his communication.

You are their product:You are not friends with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg

And we’re not just talking about opinions. If Parscale decides to make up a story that the Democratic candidate has a long record of child abuse, and then spends huge sums of money on Facebook to promote that story, there is nothing to stop him.

Zuckerberg is increasingly concerned about the growing movement to regulate and break up big tech, especially virtual monopolies like Facebook. The president could do a lot to protect Zuckerberg’s empire — especially if he is reelected. Democratic candidates like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who have openly advocated breaking up Facebook and other big tech companies, cause Zuckerberg special concern.

All of that makes you wonder what was said in Zuckerberg’s private dinner with Trump last fall at the White House.

It is impossible to overstate the danger that Facebook’s policy poses to American democracy. It opens up a gigantic breach in the bulwark of our democratic institutions — and to the integrity of the next election.

Ordinary citizens need to take matters into their own hands. That’s why a number of major progressive organizations are considering a nationwide petition campaign to demand that Facebook refuse to run advertising that contains objectively false statements. We need to join them.

Robert Creamer, a partner at Democracy Partners, has been a political organizer and strategist for five decades and was a consultant in the last three Democratic presidential campaigns. He is the author of "Listen to Your Mother: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win." Follow him on Twitter @rbcreamer