since donald trump After winning back the presidency on November 5, a parade of Silicon Valley veterans are engaging in an inappropriate growl-fest, leading to Pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lagoshoveling million-dollar contribution In their inaugural fund, and intervention in the editorial departments Publications owned by them In an apparent attempt to gain the favor of the new leader. Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's founder and CEO, said, “Hold my beer.”
In a five-minute Instagram video, rocking her new curly hairstyle and a $900,000 Greubel Forsey watchZuckerberg announced a series of drastic policy changes that could open the floodgates of misinformation and hate speech on Facebook, Threads and Instagram. His argument echoed what right-wing lawmakers, pundits and Trump himself have been repeating for years. And Zuckerberg wasn't concerned about the timing, saying explicitly that the new political regime was a factor in his thinking: “The recent election also feels like a cultural signal in the direction of prioritizing speech once again.” ,” he said in the video.
According to Zuckerberg, the main motivation for the change is the desire to promote “free expression.” Meta's social networks had gone too far in restricting users' speech, he said, hence the push for changes — which included ending Meta's multiyear partnerships with third-party fact-checking organizations and reducing the spread of hate speech. That involved stepping back from efforts to let freedom ring, even if it meant “we'd catch less bad stuff.”
But this statement is in Zuckerberg's nomenclature. He described his company's (not entirely successful) efforts to avoid promoting toxic content as “censorship”. They have now adopted the same bad-faith characterization of their employees' work that the political right did, leading it to force Facebook to allow ultraconservatives to do things like targeted harassment and deliberately promote misinformation. Was used as a weapon. In fact, Meta has every right to monitor its content as much as it wants – “censorship” is a thing that governments do, and private companies are simply exercising their own free speech rights by deciding which The content is suitable for their users and advertisers.
Zuckerberg first hinted that he might agree with the term simple letter He wrote to Republican Congressman Jim Jordan last August saying the Biden administration wanted Meta to “censor” some content related to the COVID-19 pandemic. (The content remained, which actually shows that Facebook has been given the power to shape free expression in America, not the government.) But in his Instagram post yesterday, Zuckerberg used the term as a synonym for the entire practice. Hug while using. Content moderation only. “We're going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms,” he promised. An alternative reading might be—we're letting the Dobermans out!
In the same letter to Jordan, the former left-leaning CEO pledged that he would no longer support any political party. He wrote, “My goal is to remain neutral and not play a role one way or the other – or even appear to play a role.” Now that Trump has been elected, all of that has gone out the window. “It feels like we're in a new era now,” he said in yesterday's video. Apparently, this is an era where private companies change their rules to ensure that they are in sync with the party in power. Just last week, Zuckerberg replaced Nick Clegg, the company's former president of global affairs. Joel KaplanA former GOP operative and clerk to the late Justice Anthony Scalia, who requested once Facebook will ignore misinformation during the 2016 election. Zuckerberg also took a dig at the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship dana whiteAn ardent Trump supporter, to sit on the board of Meta.
Another sign that there is a MAGA element to these changes is Zuckerberg's announcement that he is moving Meta's trust and security and content moderation teams from California to Texas. Once again, he insisted that the reasons for the geographic move were political: “I think it will help us build confidence to do this work in places where there's less concern about the bias of our teams.” Hello Mark? This step simply places Meta's content moderators in one possible location. apart Partiality. It's also a clear statement that Zuckerberg himself might consider California—Trump's kryptonite—a less palatable place to work than deep red Texas.