US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that Mark Zuckerberg told him he was “Number 1 on Facebook” during a dinner event at the White House.
While talking to conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh on his radio show, the president boasted about his reach on social media.
“I had dinner with Mark Zuckerberg the other day, and he said, ‘I’d like to congratulate you,’ in front of a large group of people. So I’m not – but he said, ‘I’d like to congratulate you. You’re Number 1 on Facebook'”, Trump said.
It is unspecified what is meant by “Number 1 on Facebook", as Trump does not have the most followers or the most likes out of every user, a feat which has been achieved by soccer star and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo with 122.2 million likes and 123.2 million followers.
Trump’s official personal Facebook account, from Tuesday morning, had 25.2 million likes and 26.7 million followers, while his verified Facebook page only for the president has 2.9 million likes and 5.2 million followers.
According to Business Insider, the dinner in question took place in secret in October while Zuckerberg was in Washington for a congressional hearing regarding Facebook’s new cryptocurrency - Libra.
Facebook later confirmed the meeting took place to NBC News.
When “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King pressed Zuckerberg in December regarding what was discussed, Zuckerberg said they had “talked about a number of things that were on his mind and some of the topics that you read about in the news around our work".
While Zuckerberg denied that he was lobbied by the president, Facebook does lobby members of congress, who in recent years have been responsible for overseeing hearings regarding the proliferation of untruthful adverts and "hate speech" on the social media platform.
Facebook lobbyists have worked alongside 29 current members of Congress in total, including major Democratic party leaders.
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