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Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Private Meetings With Conservative Pundits (politico.com) 183

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been hosting informal talks and small, off-the-record dinners with conservative journalists, commentators and at least one Republican lawmaker in recent months to discuss issues like free speech and discuss partnerships, Politico reported on Monday. From the report: The dinners, which began in July, are part of Zuckerberg's broader effort to cultivate friends on the right amid outrage by President Donald Trump and his allies over alleged "bias" against conservatives at Facebook and other major social media companies. "I'm under no illusions that he's a conservative but I think he does care about some of our concerns," said one person familiar with the gatherings, which multiple sources have confirmed. News of the outreach is likely to further fuel suspicions on the left that Zuckerberg is trying to appease the White House and stay out of Trump's crosshairs. The president threatened to sue Facebook and Google in June and has in the past pressured the Justice Department to take action against his perceived foes. "The discussion in Silicon Valley is that Zuckerberg is very concerned about the Justice Department, under Bill Barr, bringing an enforcement action to break up the company," said one cybersecurity researcher and former government official based in Silicon Valley. "So the fear is that Zuckerberg is trying to appease the Trump administration by not cracking down on right-wing propaganda."
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Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Private Meetings With Conservative Pundits

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  • "perceived foes" (Score:2, Informative)

    Yeah, sorry, no. It's not just a perception. It's verifiable fact that most social media company leadership has a left-wing bias. It's been proven over and over again by the actions taken by the largest social media companies, including Facebook.
    • by lucasnate1 ( 4682951 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @12:42PM (#59306142) Homepage

      It's verifiable fact that most social media company leadership has a left-wing bias

      Don't worry, I am sure the free market will ensure that everything balances out in the end.

      • You know, historically it was the Republicans who were the trustbusters.

        • Teddy Roosevelt was big on the idea companies could get so large they would carry a weight that should properly only be wielded under (little-d) democratic control.

          Of course class warfare was in full fury back then, where politicians took advantage of historical kings and lords owning everything and we should, having taken over, do the same crap they did, but for The People.

      • by Q-Hack! ( 37846 )

        Well, looking at the actions of Mr. Zuckerberg; It appears that the free market is starting to take it's toll on his bottom line. He's recognized that loosing half his customer base to other platforms isn't the best marketing strategy. Now he has to play catch up in order to woo them back. While Facebook will stay viable for the future, I suspect those that jumped ship are long gone. It will be interesting to see which of the newer "free speech" social media platforms will win out.

        • It will be interesting to see which of the newer "free speech" social media platforms will win out.

          You're right about "free speech", because any platform must first pass the approval of Google and Apple in order to be available in their app stores.

          Meet the new Facebook, same as the old Facebook.

      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @01:53PM (#59306440)
        and is persona non grata among every major media outlet. Meanwhile they're fawning over Joe Biden and Liz Warren. They want Biden, but he's going over like a lead balloon so they're settling for Warren, who's essentially a mid 1970s Republican on the Overton Window.

        There is a media bias. It's an _establishment_ bias. A bias to protect the establishment and their money and interests. Which makes sense, look at who owns all the media. It's the establishment. It's a bunch of rich, well connected guys. So it's inevitable there would be a conservative (little 'c') bias.

        What you should be asking yourself is do your interests align with that establishment. I'm pretty sure they don't. For one thing they don't like paying middle class wages.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Warlord88 ( 1065794 )
      The rants and complaints of bias from the American right against any kind of media - social, TV, newspapers, etc. aren't really surprising. All companies that are in the business of spread and exchange of information have a left-wing bias because reality itself has a liberal bias.
      • Your perception of reality has a left-wing bias, and in your naivety you wrongly perceive yourself to be unbiased.
        • Reality may not have a liberal bias, but it gets one when filtered by the media. This isn't a bias of the media though as many republicans would have you believe. It's a counter to the bias of republican politicians who get lumped in with actual conservatives. They tend to lie and make nefarious policy more than democrats (who get lumped in with actual liberals). The reason, as far as I can tell, is that the republican party is the party of the corporations and the democratic party is at least more of a par
        • No, reality is reality. Facts are facts. There isn't a "perception" of reality. You don't need id card to buy groceries, Obama and Hillary aren't the founders of ISIS, and Reagan did win Wisconsin, When reality becomes your foe or/and you want to warp reality, you need to come up with things like "alternative facts", "facts aren't facts", etc. "Lugenpresse" was an effective Nazi tactic and we're seeing the same from the right today.
      • All companies that are in the business of spread and exchange of information have a left-wing bias because reality itself has a liberal bias.

        Where my opinions are not only just as good as your facts, but even better, secured by the rationalization of my own infallible superiority.

        I can't imagine why there is such a growing divide in this country.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Ichijo ( 607641 )

      It's verifiable fact that most social media company leadership has a left-wing bias.

      Are you sure? [wikipedia.org]

    • And? These are not public commons. No private company has a duty to be unbiased, period. The government however, does. Threatening to break up your company unless you lean more their way is extortion, not justice.
      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        No private company has a duty to be unbiased, period.

        I say they do. You say they don't. Both of us are just asserting claims.

        But here's an actual argument: society is better off with more public forums where ideas can be freely exchanged without censorship. This must be traded off against the rights of owners. So, when a company is owned by a small group of people with a common political agenda, that concern wins. When a company is owned by the public at large, nothing important is lost by forcing them to be unbiased, and much is gained.

        So, besides sayin

    • Perhaps, but it is likely Warren that they fear, not Trump's stupid lawsuit.
    • When a country's politics is so far to the right that the centrists sound bat-shit crazy (e.g. accepting fiscal conservatism as a legitimate thing), then it's pretty much impossible to be sane, rational, well-informed, & not appear to have left-wing biases when you speak & write.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • ...I'm still not comfortable with a private company having such a profound affect on public discourse. Mind you; I'm not advocating for governmental oversight over a private company. Rather I'm suggesting we need a social media alternative that's restricted by the 1st amendment.

    No private entity could achieve that, I suspect. Their priorities necessarily can't align with that. But a government alternative could. Perhaps facebook/twitter/google should partner with the US government to create a political

    • > No private entity could achieve that, I suspect. Their priorities necessarily can't align with that. But a government alternative could.

      Government projects are run by the executive branch. Which is headed by, an responsible to, the president.

      I don't trust the administration to be politically neutral. I don't trust the Trump administration to be free from politics, and I wouldn't trust the Sanders administration to be free from politics. Since they are politicians, I trust they will ALWAYS be motivat

      • I can not think of a single administration, no matter what party association. To not be political in their decisions. I do think every person that has become president, no matter what party. Does what they think is best for the nation. We may not agree with that decision, but I don't think any president wants the nation in the shitter. But to not be politically motivated? That's how they got there. You think they will change just because they are finally there?
    • by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @01:12PM (#59306262)

      Rather I'm suggesting we need a social media alternative that's restricted by the 1st amendment.

      Those already exist. The result of allowing anything is pretty typical: hordes of bigots converging, spouting hateful diatribes and driving off anyone who isn't an extremist. Simply put, nobody but extremists want to visit that kind of place because if they did you would have already joined up.

    • I'm still not comfortable with a private company having such a profound affect on public discourse.

      I have seen absolutely ZERO proof that Facebook has anything like a "profound" impact on public discourse.

      In fact I would say, the widespread and ongoing censorship of so many things conservative on Facebook and other social media platforms proves that Facebook does NOT have a dramatic effect on anything.

      If you think about it rationally, why would it? Have you EVER seen a person on Facebook who would be inclu

  • Perceived? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by onyxruby ( 118189 ) <onyxruby AT comcast DOT net> on Monday October 14, 2019 @01:08PM (#59306228)

    Bias against conservatives has been well documented. Conservatives have been repeatedly deplatformed, demonetized and consistently have their content reduced. If your a big enough voice and well enough known you can get someone to make enough noise about it. Facebook always says 'a mistake was made'. If your not a big name, forget it, your going to be suffer rampant discrimination.

    Facebook content should be roughly one third liberal, one third independent and one third conservative. This should happen for the simple reason that this is how Americans self identify politically: https://news.gallup.com/poll/1... [gallup.com]

    I don't think anyone can say with a straight face that the content coming out of Facebook or anywhere in Silicon Valley social media platforms is remotely close to one third liberal. There are only three ways this can happen.

    * Make your platform hostile to anyone that isn't a liberal so that conservatives and a fair portion of independents aren't welcome (Jezebel etc.).
    * Moderation to suppress voices that don't reflect management's party line (Reddit etc.)
    * Programmatic suppression of opinions that don't reflect management's party line (Twitter, Google etc.)

    People have repeatedly done experiments where they swap race, pronouns or other words to see how content is being filtered. What is tolerated for one is considered hate speech for another. Hate speech has become the dog whistle for conservative speech and an excuse for censorship and suppression of a significant portion of the population. I don't think it's fooling anyone anymore.

  • I can hear the rustling of the money charging hands, the slurping sound of Zucks lips, and the occasional "Yeah baby, harder, give it to me harder" when the Zucks mouth is empty ...

  • No sympathy here (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HanzoSpam ( 713251 ) on Monday October 14, 2019 @01:39PM (#59306384)

    These tech companies went out of their way to insult the political right, who should have been their natural allies. Instead, they cultivate the left, who hate them for being successful no matter how loudly they mouth the party line. Now they are surprised that they have no friends, anywhere. Maybe Zuckerberg has finally figured out which side his bread is buttered on.

    • So, liberals, who run everything and have a conspiracy to protect Hillary from paying the price for her string of serial murders, hate rich people for succeeeding.

      Super logical deduction from the facts that is not. If you don't want to pay taxes and support the US military, just go back to where your ancestors are from... right?

      I already pay for other people's Medicare... why can I use them as my insurance company and pay them for that? B/c conservatives don't like me to be able to buy things at cost whic

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude.

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