Facebook CEO mark Zuckerberg defended his company’s decision to allow political lies and misinformation in a wide-ranging speech Thursday in which he appealed to the merits of debate and freedom of expression.

Giving people a voice and creating an opportunity for a vigorous exchange of ideas is good for society, Zuckerberg said in a speech Thursday at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, which the Facebook founder said happened at least in part because of a failure to consider different points of view.

“Back when I was in College, our country had just gone to war in Iraq, and the mood on our campus was disbelief. A lot of people felt we acted without hearing a lot of important points of view, ” he said. “I remember feeling that if more people had a voice to share their experiences, maybe things would have worked out differently.”

That awareness shaped his vision for Facebook, Zuckerberg said, describing the social media platform as something to “give people a voice and bring people together.”

Zuckerberg attended Harvard University from 2002 to 2004, quitting to work for Facebook full – time after his project became popular off campus. The US led the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, largely based on erroneous claims that the country had weapons of mass destruction.

Zuckerberg also leaned on the civil rights movement, protests against the Vietnam war and the persecution of socialist leader Eugene Debs, arguing that the social network would at least be censored.

“The long road to greater progress requires confronting ideas that challenge us,” Zuckerberg said. “You cannot impose tolerance from the top down . … It should come from people opening up, sharing experiences and developing a shared history for the society in which we all feel part. That’s how we make progress .”

The appeal was made after Facebook was criticized for the fact that he sent out political advertising that contains a lie. The company recently ran an ad for trump’s re-election campaign, during which former Vice President Joe Biden accused him of corruption. The charge was not proven, and Biden’s campaign asked for the ad to be taken down. Facebook declined. 

Senator Elizabeth Warren last week took out her own campaign ad claiming that Zuckerberg endorsed trump, a way to criticize the company’s position by using political lies against him. (Both Biden and Warren are running for a chance to challenge Mr. Trump as a Democrat in next year’s election.)

Facebook has reviewed the decline of political advertising in General, Zuckerberg said Thursday, adding that ” the controversy is certainly not worth the small portion of our business they make up.” But the company concluded that such a ban would amount to censorship.

“There are far more announcements about issues than there are directly about elections,” Zuckerberg said. “Will we ban all ads on health care or immigration or women’s empowerment? If we were to ban ads for candidates but not these, would it really make sense to give everyone else a voice in the political debate except the candidates themselves?

However, the company is trying to temper the billions of posts it spends every day and is forming a Supervisory Board to help it with difficult content decisions. The Board, which is expected to consist of 40 members, plans to begin hearing appeals cases next year.

Quotes are delayed for at least 15 minutes.

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