Mark Zuckerberg recently appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast, discussing various topics, including the end of fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, as well as the Joe Biden administration pressure on the social media company to censor truthful content.
Zuckerberg stated that the fact-checking program was not widely accepted by people and had become too focused on political fact-checking, which was not its original intention. He also mentioned that the company faced massive institutional pressure to censor content on ideological grounds, particularly after the 2016 US presidential election and Brexit.
The Meta chief explained that the program was initially intended to address hoax claims, but it veered off course and became focused on political fact-checking, which was not its original goal.
"During the Biden administration, when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program," the social media CEO said, "while they were trying to push that program they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it. And they pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly, were true. They basically pushed us and said, you know, that ‘anything saying that says vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.’ And I was just like ‘We’re not going to do that, we’re clearly not going to do that, I mean that is kind of inarguably true."
"Who is ‘they’?" Rogan asked. "Who was telling you to take down things that talk about vaccine side effects?"
"It was people in the Biden administration," the Meta CEO said.
He then spoke further about the "government censorship," much of which he says has been covered by the congressional investigation, where he said, "I mean basically these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse, and it's like… these documents are, it's all kind of out there."
Zuckerberg summarized that the conflict between his company and the government "basically got to this point where we were like, ‘No, we're not going to, we're not going to take down things that are true.' That's ridiculous."
Zuckerberg recalled initially pushing back against the Biden administration on things that are factually true or memes, but later recalled how the game changed when Biden "gave some statement at some point, I don't know if it was a press conference, or to some journalist, where he basically was like, ‘These guys are killing people.'"
'Then, like, all these different agencies and branches of government basically just, like, started investigating and coming after our company. It was brutal, it was brutal," he said.
Rogan later asked about the response after the investigation, "was anybody held accountable? Was there any, I mean any repercussions?"
"I mean they lost the election," Zuckerberg joked.
Zuckerberg also argued that the government, by using Big Tech corporations to censor on its behalf, violated the First Amendment.
"I don't think that the [government] pushing for social media companies to censor stuff was legal," he said.
While freedom of speech doesn't apply to companies, he said, "The First Amendment does apply to the government. That's, like, the whole point. That the government is not allowed to censor this stuff. So, at some level, I do think that, yeah, having people in the administration calling up the guys on our team and yelling at them and cursing and threatening repercussions if we don't take down things that are true is pretty bad."
During a discussion about Apple's AppStore fees, Zuckerberg threw some jabs at the Cupertino giant, saying it hasn't invented anything great in a while. "Steve Jobs invented the iPhone and now they're just sitting on it 20 years later... so how are they making more money as a company? They do it by squeezing people," Zuckerberg said.
Meta Ends Woke DEI Programs, Removes Tampons From Men's Bathrooms, As Mark Zuckerberg Ends Discredited Left-wing Fact-checking System
Meanwhile in another development Friday, Meta has also terminated its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, effective immediately, as announced Friday, by Janelle Gale, Meta’s vice president of people, on the company’s Workplace internal communications forum a company memo.
Several Meta faclilies mangers in New York, Silicon Valley and Texas, have reportedly been ordered to remove tampons from men's bathrooms which the company had provided for the nonbinary and transgender employees who use the men's room.
The decisions come amidst a changing legal and policy landscape surrounding DEI efforts in the United States, with recent Supreme Court decisions and growing conservative opposition to such initiatives.
Among the changes, Meta is ending the company’s “Diverse Slate Approach” of considering qualified candidates from underrepresented groups for its open roles. The company is also putting an end to its diversity supplier program and its equity and inclusion training programs.
Gale also announced the disbanding of the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, team, and she said that Meta Chief Diversity Officer Maxine Williams will move into a new role focused on accessibility and engagement.
Apparently several triggered woke Meta employees responded to Gale’s post with comments criticizing the new policy.
“If you don’t stand by your principles when things get difficult, they aren’t values. They’re hobbies,” one employee posted in a comment that got reaction from more than 600 colleagues.
