Mark Zuckerberg says he personally told President Trump that some of his 'rhetoric was problematic'

• Mark Zuckerberg said he has personally discussed with President Donald Trump the use of his "problematic" rhetoric.
• "I have had certain discussions with him in the past where I've told him that I thought some of the rhetoric was problematic," the Facebook CEO said in an appearance on CBS News.
• Zuckerberg announced a series of new policies that will be implemented on the social media platform to help safeguard the integrity of the 2020 election.
• "This will definitely apply to the president," he said.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday that he has called out President Donald Trump's use of "problematic" rhetoric.

"I have had certain discussions with him in the past and where I've told him that I thought some of the rhetoric was problematic," Zuckerberg said in an interview with CBS News.

But the pair have not spoken about the president's more recent social media posts in which he undermined mail-in voting amid the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that it is rife with fraud.

"If I did talk to him, you know, be clear about how — just the importance of making sure that people have confidence in the election," Zuckerberg told CBS. "I certainly think that anyone who's saying that the election is going to be fraudulent, I think that that's problematic. And I think additional context needs to be added to that."

Zuckerberg announced sweeping new policies on Thursday that will go into effect on Facebook ahead of Nov. 3 to help safeguard the election process. After the 2016 election, the social media behemoth faced backlash for not taking enough steps to stop foreign entities from using Facebook to spread misinformation among voters. Some critics even deemed the site a threat to democracy.

This year, Zuckerberg struck a decidedly different tone, writing on Facebook: "This election is not going to be business as usual. We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy. I believe our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election."

To this end, Facebook is employing a number of measures, including removing false claims about voting, adding "authoritative information" on how to vote, blocking foreign operatives attempts to interfere, and freezing new political ads in the week leading up to Election Day.

"This will definitely apply to the president," Zuckerberg told CBS News. "Once this policy goes into place, and it will apply to everyone equally."

Shortly after the announcement, the Trump campaign accused Zuckerberg of trying to muzzle the president.

"In the last seven days of the most important election in our history, President Trump will be banned from defending himself on the largest platform in America," Samantha Zager, the Trump campaign's deputy national press secretary, said. "When millions of voters will be making their decisions, the President will be silenced by the Silicon Valley Mafia, who will at the same time allow corporate media to run their biased ads to swing voters in key states."

• Read more:
• Twitter flags Trump's tweets encouraging people to vote twice for 'violating our Civic Integrity Policy'
• Trump campaign pushes back on Facebook's new election policies: 'The President will be silenced by the Silicon Valley Mafia'
• Facebook will ban new political ads a week before the election
• Facebook will pay tens of thousands of users to quit the app ahead of the election so it can study the platform's impact on politics