Mark Zuckerberg Called Trump to Congratulate Him On Winning 2016 Election

According to a new report from Buzzfeed News, in the days following President Donald Trump's election victory in the 2016 presidential election, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the then president-elect to congratulate the Trump team on winning the election, and its "successful [advertising] campaign on Facebook."

News of the private call comes after Business Insider revealed that Trump and Zuckerberg have reportedly spoken several times over the phone since the election, shedding light on what the two billionaires have been discussing. 

The Facebook CEO has been known to offer criticism of Trump over the last few years, as he endorses several political causes that are at odds with Trump's politics, like immigration reform. 

Buzzfeed News reviewed internal Facebook documents that revealed the social media giant sees Trump's advertising campaign as an "innovator" and has gone on to use their techniques in their own advertising efforts. The model, known as "Test, Learn, Adapt (TLA), was key to the Trump campaign's ability to sway voting sentiment via Facebook advertising using a rapid A/B testing approach according to the documents. 

The Trump campaign was a major customer of Facebook's advertising business, having spent $44 million during the run-up to the November 2016 election. 

A Facebook spokesperson declined comment on Buzzfeed's news to Business Insider saying: "We declined to comment on the speculation to Buzzfeed and have nothing else to add." 

The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the Buzzfeed report.

The news comes as Zuckerberg faces criticism over how his company handled the onslaught of fake news and data breaches perpetrated on his site. The CEO was hauled before Congress to testify about his company's involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which millions of users' information were leaked and used to influence their political opinions on behalf of politicians who hired them. 

According to a recent study from The New York Times, Trump and his political action committee remain the single largest political advertiser on Facebook having spent at least $274,000 on adverts since May. 

Photo: Getty Images


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