Mark Zuckerberg Reportedly Acknowledged Joe Biden’s Election Victory To Facebook Staff

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his employees on Thursday that Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States, BuzzFeed News reported.

“I believe the outcome of the election is now clear and Joe Biden is going to be our next president,” he reportedly told employees on Thursday.

“It’s important that people have confidence that the election was fundamentally fair, and that goes for the tens of millions of people that voted for [Donald] Trump.”

Zuckerberg also reportedly used the meeting to discuss individuals who believe that the election results would be overturned in favor of the U.S. leader.

“Part of what we’re seeing out here are people who are calling for recounts and legal challenges, which, in a lot of cases, is their right and something you see in a lot of elections,” he said.

The Facebook founder continued to claim that such efforts can be “quite unhelpful” by “raising expectations” that the projected outcome — which has been supported by all major media outlets — is wrong.

Zuckerberg also slammed Trump for spreading election disinformation — criticism that came just hours after the head of state falsely claimed on Facebook that an equipment tabulation manufacturer deleted votes in Pennsylvania.

As noted by BuzzFeed News, Zuckerberg’s comments come as his platform continues to host content that pushes back against claims that Biden won the election. During the meeting, the CEO was also pressed on how he planned to work with Biden’s administration amid concerns that the Democrat’s team is not fond of him and his company.

Elsewhere, employees are divided on Zuckerberg’s approach. One employee told BuzzFeed News that the company is “actively radicalizing millions of people” into believing that the 2020 election is being stolen by Democrats. Conversely, some staffers in the internal chat that was active during Zuckerberg’s speech took issue with the CEO calling Biden “president-elect.” In addition, at least one person allegedly claimed that the election was marred by fraud and pointed in particular to the theory that dead individuals were used to vote. Per KTLA, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General notably pushed back on such claims and said no evidence of this type of fraud had been found in the state.

Facebook has also faced criticism for keeping former Trump campaign strategist Steve Bannon’s profile active after he called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray, The Hill reported. According to Zuckerberg, while Bannon’s comments violated Facebook policy, the violations were not severe enough to shut down the account.