Zuckerberg’s approach to political speech has come under fire in recent weeks. Democrats took particular notice with Facebooks of the decision to allow an ad from President trump’s 2020 campaign that included lies about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, hunter. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded to Facebook’s decision by running its own campaign ad, satirically stating that Zuckerberg is backing trump for re-election.

Mark Zuckerberg: the Internet needs new rules. Let’s start in these four areas.

Zuckerberg framed the issue as part of a broader debate over freedom of expression, warning of the dangers of social media, including Facebook, potentially cracking down too much. He called on the United States to set an example for special regulation unlike other countries, including China, which censor political speech on the Internet. And Zuckerberg stressed that Facebook must stand firm against governments that seek to retreat from free speech in the face of heightened social and political tensions.

Zuckerberg’s appearance in Washington marks his most persistent attempt to articulate his vision for how governments and tech giants should approach the Web of most intractable problems. Instagram Facebook and its affiliated apps, Instagram and WhatsApp, which make up a virtual community of billions of users, pose challenges for Zuckerberg and regulators around the world as they struggle to contain hate speech, lies, violent images and terrorist propaganda on social media.

Next week, Zuckerberg is set to testify at a congressional hearing that is likely to serve as a wide-ranging review of companies ‘ business practices. Facebook’s Facebook size, meanwhile, has become a major target of ridicule from some Democrats seeking the White house in 2020, who argue that Facebook is too big, powerful and problematic and should be regulated or broken up.

The election gives new urgency to Facebooks issues. The social network became a major platform for misinformation during the 2016 race, and experts say forms of manipulation and deception have evolved since then, including the emergence of deepfakes, or videos that convincingly distort what a subject is doing or saying with artificial intelligence. Fake clip of House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), treated to make her appear drunk, which went viral on Facebook in may drew attention to the problem.

Years after Obama used Facebook to help him win the presidency, Silicon valley is under fire from Democrats

Zuckerberg acknowledged that Facebook has a lot to work on to combat such digital woes. He revealed that Facebook is working through what our policy should be on deepfake videos. I think were getting pretty close to at least the deployment of the first version, Zuckerberg said. He declined to give further details.

The tech giant refused to take down the video, although it later made an app notation that it was false, prompting sharp criticism from The house speaker and others that the company had failed to address the blatant lie.

Asked if the Pelosi incident illustrated a serious gap in Facebook, Zuckerberg agreed. If something becomes a big problem and we haven’t prepared for it yet, then that means we’ve been too slow to prepare for it, he said. And I think figuring out what types of deepfakes are actually a threat today, versus a theoretical future threat as technology progresses, is one of the things we need to make sure we get right.

But Zuckerberg was behind the way Facebook, which has long shied away from fact-checking political ads, handles political ads. I think were in the right place on this issue, he said. In General, in a democracy, I think people should be able to hear for themselves what politicians are saying.”

Facebook policy allows politicians to lie in ads, leaving Democrats fearing what trump will do

Ad campaign trump on Biden made statements about its relations with Ukraine, which is one of the most important elements in the investigation of the impeachment in Congress. The Biden campaign asked Facebook to remove the ad, describing it as false, but the social network refused, pointing to a policy against fact-checking such political statements. The companies ‘ reaction drew widespread rebukes from Biden and other 2020 Democratic candidates, including Warren, many of whom argued that Facebook was essentially profiting from misinformation.

Speaking in Georgetown later on Thursday, Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company once considered banning political advertising, but decided against it, believing that it stands for employees and who the media covers.

But Biden’s campaign spokesman, bill Russo, later attacked Zuckerberg for an unconvincing rationale. Zuckerberg tried to use the Constitution as a shield for his bottom-line companies, Russo said, and his choice to hide Facebooks policies in a feigned concern for freedom of expression demonstrates how unprepared his company is for this unique moment in our history and how little he has learned over the past few years.

Facebook has faced a barrage of criticism from both sides of the aisle about what content it censors. Republicans, for example, argue that the company censors conservative users and news sites, a charge the company has long denied.

Often, people who call the most for us to remove content often first complain when its content that falls on the wrong side of politics, Zuckerberg said. These are very difficult questions, and in General, unless it is absolutely clear what to do, I think you want to err on the side of more expression.

Zuckerberg stressed that he believes Facebook is now in a much better place to stop such disinformation campaigns, citing companies ‘ investments in personnel and artificial intelligence. But he also warned that misinformation is a threat that no one can say its going to go away because they will continue to insist. In recent months, Facebook has reported disinformation campaigns from countries such as Iran and China.

He blamed the U.S. government’s lack of an initial response as one of the reasons the problem escalated after the last presidential election. Unfortunately, after 2016, the US did not have a particularly strong response to Russia, he continued, so it sent a signal to other countries that they can participate in this as well.”

Zuckerberg’s speech comes seven months after he made an initial call for governments to adopt rules for the Internet and for tech giants including Facebook to set up systems so that no executives or companies determine what is or is not appropriate on the Internet. Facebook is actively creating a Supreme court of sorts so that users can appeal against companies ‘ decisions on content it leaves or takes down.

On Thursday, however, Zuckerberg’s message served more as a warning that overreaction could stifle the very speech that many regulators seek to protect.

He said the General consensus these days is that more people having a voice leads to division rather than uniting people, he said. In times of social tension we fall back on expression and we always end up believing it was wrong.