Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Meta and Facebook had censored conservative voices but pledged to restore free speech. In a recent video, he announced plans to simplify policies, eliminate fact checkers, and introduce community notes, allowing users to flag misleading posts. He cited the recent election as a cultural turning point influencing this shift, blaming “the government and traditional media” for increased censorship. Zuckerberg aims to prioritize political content on users’ timelines and modify policies on topics like immigration and gender. Recently, he also strengthened ties with President-elect Donald Trump, reflecting a significant change in Meta’s approach to free expression.
Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Meta and Facebook censored conservative voices on an industry-wide scale, but vowed to make both sites beacons of free speech.
In a five-minute video message shared to his Facebook profile, the 40-year-old said: “We are going back to basics, making fewer mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring freedom of expression on our platform. I’m going to focus on that,” he said.
“More specifically, starting in the US, we plan to eliminate fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X.”
Similar to X, this transition will allow users on the site to point out posts that may be misleading and require more context.
Wearing a black T-shirt, a gold chain with a pendant and loose curls, Zuckerberg said the election was a big influence on the movement and was pushing for “more censorship.” He blamed “the government and traditional media.” .
He said the company will work to bring more political content back to users’ timelines and give them options to customize how much they see.
The announcement comes as fellow CEOs and business leaders seek to gain support from President-elect Donald Trump, the next commander in chief.
Zuckerberg, wearing a black T-shirt, a gold chain with a pendant and loose curls, said the election had a big impact.
Zuckerberg said the company will work to bring more political content back to users’ timelines and give them options to customize how much they see it.
Trump and Zuckerberg are seen here meeting inside the Oval Office in September 2019.
“The recent elections feel like a cultural tipping point in re-prioritizing speech,” he said.
“That’s why we’re going back to basics and focusing on reducing mistakes, simplifying policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
“We have seen this approach work in X, where the community is empowered to decide when a post is potentially misleading and requires more context. People with different perspectives decide what context is useful to others.”
Zuckerberg added that the new approach is “less biased.”
Meta also plans to “simplify” its policies to “remove many restrictions on topics that have nothing to do with mainstream discourse, such as immigration and gender.”
This change will not only affect Threads, but also Facebook and Instagram, two of the world’s largest social media sites with billions of users.
Since sharing the policy change on Tuesday morning, social media users have been reacting to the news with mixed opinions.
“Zuckerberg has completely switched teams,” one person posted. That’s very difficult. He oversees more than 60% of social media in the United States. What caused this to happen?
Conservative provocateur Ben Shapiro added: “This is a major change in the direction of Facebook.”
Zuckerberg stunned and shocked the left in 2019 when he spelled out his vision for free speech at Georgetown. Facebook then caved in and engaged in massive censorship. The tide has changed. Good for Zuckerberg. ”
Social media users have been divided on the news since sharing the policy change on Tuesday morning.
President Trump criticized Facebook in July after the social media platform mistakenly censored an image of himself covered in blood following an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Another posted: “He’s a human weather vane.” The wind blows in one direction, that’s what he says. The wind has changed, he said now. ”
Mr. Zuckerberg recently donated $1 million to President Trump’s inaugural fund, completely reversing their previous relationship.
The policy change and donation came after Zuckerberg had a dinner with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago in November.
On Monday, Zuckerberg added Dana White to Meta’s board of directors in another olive branch to Trump.
Meta last week named Joel Kaplan, an executive with deep Republican ties, as president of international affairs.
Kaplan said on Fox News Tuesday morning that changes in society over the past four years have led to the change.
He said, “There’s no question that what happened in the meta came from Mark.
“But there is also no question that there has been a change over the past four years. We have seen a lot of social and political pressure towards increased content control and censorship.
“And now we have a real opportunity. We have a new administration and a new president who is a strong defender of freedom of expression. And that’s what will make the difference.”
Meta last week named Joel Kaplan, an executive with deep Republican ties, as president of international affairs. He and Zuckerberg are pictured here in 2019 when he was vice president of global policy.
Kaplan said on Fox News Tuesday morning that changes in society over the past four years have led to the change.
Kaplan also said he will continue to work closely with President-elect Trump to protect the First Amendment and American businesses.
He added: “One of the things we’ve seen is that when the U.S. presidential administration pushes for censorship, it’s unleashed on other governments around the world who don’t even have the protection of the First Amendment.” he added. This is to put serious pressure on American companies.
“We will work with President Trump to stop such acts around the world.”
President Trump has long criticized Meta for its politically biased censorship of Republicans and conservatives.
President Trump previously supported repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which gives social media companies legal immunity over what their users post.
If repealed, anyone would be able to sue social media companies like Meta over controversial content on their sites. Attempts to moderate such content may also be subject to litigation.
Four years ago, after the January 6 riot, Trump was suspended from Facebook for two years.
He returned to the stage in 2023, months after Trump announced his third bid for the White House, and was ultimately elected.
Mehta has permanently removed all suspension penalties from Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts by July 2024, citing the need for the public to hear from presidential candidates.
This move will result in Meta partnering with X. X owner Elon Musk is pictured here alongside Trump last October.
Mehta also plans to “simplify” his policies to “remove a number of restrictions on topics that are completely outside the mainstream discourse, such as immigration and gender.”
On Monday, Mr. Zuckerberg added Dana White to Meta’s board of directors, in a separate branch from Mr. Trump.
Trump’s latest grievance with Mehta came in July, when he admitted that Facebook had mistakenly censored an image of Trump bleeding from his ear after he was shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. It was after.
At the time, President Trump posted on social media, “Facebook has admitted that it mistakenly censored photos of President Trump’s assassination attempt and was caught.”
“So is Google,” he argued. “They’ve made it virtually impossible to find any photos or anything about this heinous act. Both are facing huge backlash over censorship claims.”
Zuckerberg acknowledged last August that the Biden administration had asked Facebook to censor what it called “coronavirus misinformation.”
In a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, he said he would fight back against any future attempts at censorship, including that the company had “demoted” an article about Hunter Biden’s laptop. I admitted it.
He said the White House “repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and when we disagreed… I expressed my great dissatisfaction with the team.”
He said the pressure was “wrong” and regretted “that we didn’t speak up more”.
“With the benefit of hindsight and new information, we made some choices that we would not have made today,” he added.
