Facebook defends policy allowing false political ads

Facebook is defending its policy of not fact checking political ads or politicians' comments after CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced criticism from Democratic legislators.

In a statement to the Associated Press, Facebook says a private company shouldn't censor politicians, even if they make misleading or bogus claims.

It says that removing false ads or statements could leave politicians less accountable for their words.

House Democrats, including Maxine Waters from California and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York, criticized Zuckerberg for the policy at a hearing Wednesday.

Ocasio-Cortez questioned whether the policy would allow politicians to plant ads making up false claims about their opponents. Zuckerberg said it "probably" would be allowed.

Twitter and YouTube have also been criticized for not removing false political ads.