Media mogul Barry Diller told CNBC on Wednesday that when it comes political ads on social media, he's in Mark Zuckerberg's corner.
In an interview on "Squawk Box," the IAC chairman launched into a defense of the Facebook CEO and the social media behemoth's decision not to fact-check paid political advertising.
"Here's the thing: He's right. Not only is he right, it's against the law," Diller said. "On broadcast television, you cannot censor political advertising."
The Communications Act prohibits federal broadcasters from censoring certain political advertisements, according to the FCC.
Diller's comments position him as one of the few to publicly defend Zuckerberg's policy.
"How are you going to prove a lie, given most of these commercials in negative advertising are filled with exaggerations and things?" he asked. "I think Facebook has spent billions of dollars to try to tame this."
Facebook's policy to allow politicians and elected officials to promote false and misleading ads came under scrutiny earlier this month after the Trump 2020 campaign promoted a series of ads containing false information about Democrat Joe Biden. Since then, it has become the focus of some politicians and regulators who criticize Facebook as shirking public responsibility and profiting off the spread of misinformation.
"I actually think of all the services, of all these big monopolistic services, Facebook really is the most benign," Diller said.
