Biden on Zuckerberg: 'Whether he engaged in something and amounted to collusion that in fact caused harm that would in fact be equal to a criminal offense, that's a different issue. That's possible.'

"Whether he engaged in something and amounted to collusion that in fact caused harm that would in fact be equal to a criminal offense, that's a different issue. That's possible. That's possible it could happen," Biden told The New York Times editorial board in an interview published Friday.
Biden also said he's "never been a big Zuckerberg fan," calling the CEO "a real problem."
He also called for the repeal of a law that shields Facebook and other online platforms from being held accountable for the content their users post.
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Former Vice President Joe Biden said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg may have committed a "criminal offense" in his handling of political misinformation on the social networking site.

"Whether he engaged in something and amounted to collusion that in fact caused harm that would in fact be equal to a criminal offense, that's a different issue. That's possible. That's possible it could happen," Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic candidate, told The New York Times editorial board in an interview published Friday.

He went on to suggest that Zuckerberg allowed the Russian government to use Facebook to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, although it was unclear exactly what he was accusing Zuckerberg of.

"The idea that he cooperates with knowing that Russia was engaged in dealing with using the internet, I mean using their platform, to try to undermine American elections. That's close to criminal," Biden said, adding that Zuckerberg must have known about Russia's influence campaign on Facebook before the CEO says he did.

Biden made the comments after being asked about a letter he sent to Facebook in October requesting that they remove a Trump campaign ad that falsely said that Biden offered Ukraine $1 billion in exchange for the removal of the country's top prosecutor.

He slammed Facebook for "propagating falsehoods they know to be false" by allowing politicians to make untrue statements in advertisements. And he argued for immediately revoking Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act , which allows online platforms to escape most liability for content their users post.

"I've never been a fan of Facebook," Biden told The Times. "I've never been a big Zuckerberg fan. I think he's a real problem ... He knows better."

Read Biden's full interview with The New York Times editorial board here .

Aaron Holmes contributed reporting.

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