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Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is recovering from a potentially conspiracy-driven attack at a hospital named after someone who helped make the Pelosi family into a pariah on the right: Mark Zuckerberg.
Yes, Paul Pelosi has been undergoing treatment at San Francisco’s Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center, a facility funded in part by the fortune Zuckerberg has amassed by owning social media platforms rife with conspiracy theories, some of which have targeted the Pelosis directly.
The hospital named after the Facebook founder, in that light, is a shrine to the immorality of tech bros, their ruthless capitalism, and their desire to be seen as heroes despite it all.
Since Friday, details that have emerged about the alleged attacker portray him as a conservative fanatic obsessed with bigotry common in online spaces for conservatives (including Republican lawmakers). On Monday, the Justice Department charged David DePape, 42, with federal counts of assault and attempted kidnapping. DePape, who has not publicly commented on the case, is expected to face state charges soon.
Sources told NBC News that the attacker broke into the Pelosis’ home, shouting: “Where is Nancy?” (She wasn’t home at the time.) Those words should sound familiar — they were also said by rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, an attack that had been organized and advertised on Zuckerberg’s Facebook platform.
NBC News’ Ben Collins did a deep dive into DePape’s online history and found a trove of right-wing bigotry.
Facebook is known to be a cesspool of right-wing propaganda, and its leadership hasn’t taken a particularly tough stance toward disinformation posted about Pelosi and other leaders. The message sent from Zuckerberg and Co. has seemed clear to me: Online, it’s fair game.
On multiple occasions, for example, Facebook officials allowed doctored videos appearing to show Pelosi slurring her words — as if intoxicated — to remain on the platform despite being made aware the videos were being used to push right-wing conspiracies about her fitness for office.
Zuckerberg has been known to secretly pal around with former President Donald Trump — an avowed Pelosi hater — so any hope of him being an ally to Democrats (or democracy itself) was a long shot.
Nonetheless, Facebook’s repeated failures to protect women, including lawmakers like Pelosi, from online abuse is why she and dozens of other female lawmakers from around the world signed a letter in 2020 urging the platform to curb the abuse.
“A growing body of evidence shows that women politicians around the globe are facing a deluge of gender-based attacks online, mixing weaponized hate and disinformation with the anonymity provided by social media to destroy women’s reputations and push them out of public life,” they wrote.
On Friday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin helped drive that point home with remarks about Pelosi after the attack on her husband earlier that day.
“There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California,” the Republican said cruelly at a rally.
His staff posted a video of his remarks on Facebook.