Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responds to report he's been meeting with conservatives

Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday he meets with lots of people because that's "part of learning," a comment prompted by a report detailing a series of quiet meetings the  Facebook  boss has had with conservative figures in the US over the summer. The meetings, in the form of small, off-record dinners at his homes since July, have included conservative talkshow hosts, journalists and at least one Republican lawmaker, Politico reported earlier in the day.

"There's some press today discussing dinners I've had with conservative politicians, media and thinkers," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page. "To be clear, I have dinners with lots of people across the spectrum on lots of different issues all the time."

According to an unnamed person quoted by Politico, the dinners have been focused on "free expression, unfair treatment of conservatives, the appeals process for real or perceived unfair treatment, fact checking, partnerships and privacy."

Facebook didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

The report comes as Facebook's policies toward what speech is acceptable on its platform continue to make waves. Over the weekend, Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic presidential candidate, ran a Facebook ad containing false statements to protest the social network allowing false statements from politicians to be posted on the platform.

The Politico report helped push #DeleteFacebook to No. 2 on Twitter's trending list in the US. As of 3:00 p.m. PT it had more than 21,000 tweets.