Zuckerberg On Rogan: Facebook's Censorship Was 'Something Out of 1984' (axios.com) 184
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Axios: Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, in an appearance on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, criticized the Biden administration for pushing for censorship around COVID-19 vaccines, the media for hounding Facebook to clamp down on misinformation after the 2016 election, and his own company for complying. Zuckerberg's three-hour interview with Rogan gives a clear window into his thinking during a remarkable week in which Meta loosened its content moderation policies and shut down its DEI programs.
The Meta CEO said a turning point for his approach to censorship came after Biden publicly said social media companies were "killing people" by allowing COVID misinformation to spread, and politicians started coming after the company from all angles. Zuckerberg told Rogan, who was a prominent skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, that the Biden administration would "call up the guys on our team and yell at them and cursing and threatening repercussions if we don't take down things that are true."
Zuckerberg said that Biden officials wanted Meta to take down a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV, with a joke at the expense of people who were vaccinated. Zuckerberg said his company drew the line at removing "humor and satire." But he also said his company had gone too far in complying with such requests, and acknowledged that he and others at the company wrongly bought into the idea -- which he said the traditional media had been pushing -- that misinformation spreading on social media swung the 2016 election to Donald Trump. Zuckerberg likened his company's fact-checking process to a George Orwell novel, saying it was "something out of 1984" and led to a broad belief that Meta fact-checkers "were too biased."
"It really is a slippery slope, and it just got to a point where it's just, OK, this is destroying so much trust, especially in the United States, to have this program." He said he was "worried" from the beginning about "becoming this sort of decider of what is true in the world."
Later in the interview, Zuckerberg praised X's "community notes" program and suggested that social media creators were replacing the government and traditional media as arbiters of truth, becoming "a new kind of cultural elite that people look up to."
Further reading: Meta Is Ushering In a 'World Without Facts,' Says Nobel Peace Prize Winner
The Meta CEO said a turning point for his approach to censorship came after Biden publicly said social media companies were "killing people" by allowing COVID misinformation to spread, and politicians started coming after the company from all angles. Zuckerberg told Rogan, who was a prominent skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, that the Biden administration would "call up the guys on our team and yell at them and cursing and threatening repercussions if we don't take down things that are true."
Zuckerberg said that Biden officials wanted Meta to take down a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at a TV, with a joke at the expense of people who were vaccinated. Zuckerberg said his company drew the line at removing "humor and satire." But he also said his company had gone too far in complying with such requests, and acknowledged that he and others at the company wrongly bought into the idea -- which he said the traditional media had been pushing -- that misinformation spreading on social media swung the 2016 election to Donald Trump. Zuckerberg likened his company's fact-checking process to a George Orwell novel, saying it was "something out of 1984" and led to a broad belief that Meta fact-checkers "were too biased."
"It really is a slippery slope, and it just got to a point where it's just, OK, this is destroying so much trust, especially in the United States, to have this program." He said he was "worried" from the beginning about "becoming this sort of decider of what is true in the world."
Later in the interview, Zuckerberg praised X's "community notes" program and suggested that social media creators were replacing the government and traditional media as arbiters of truth, becoming "a new kind of cultural elite that people look up to."
Further reading: Meta Is Ushering In a 'World Without Facts,' Says Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Lol (Score:5, Insightful)
Why open his mouth now to Joe Rogan? The man had his own personal social media platform to use. Just more posturing to the right wing.
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Why open his mouth now to Joe Rogan? The man had his own personal social media platform to use. Just more posturing to the right wing.
Zuckerberg knows he didn’t just have to go on Joe Rogan.
He knows he needed to. Because Joe Rogan is now more relevant than he is. Or should I say what Joe stands for, is becoming more relevant.
Shocking how Truth can bring even perceived “enemies” together to help fix the considerable problems that grown-ass children have brought upon society, abusing lies to create a victim ideology that was oddly valued for a time.
Re: Lol (Score:5, Informative)
"Truth" was the name of the newspaper of the old Stalinists. It's very apt for your version of Truth.
Re:Lol (Score:5, Insightful)
And if you think any of these sociopathic pricks won't flip-flop back again should the position swing firmly back to the left in the future, would you be interested in buying a bridge?
Re:Lol (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: Lol (Score:2)
Plain yes but nothing is simple, ever. Once you get past villages everything is always complex and political, especially once you have a global village of people traveling and communicating across the planet.
Fuck (autocorrect from Zuck) is a POS but he's nothing compared to Cheeto Benito. And if he doesn't kiss the O-ring then he's going to get fucked in his.
Re:Lol (Score:4, Interesting)
Why wouldn't companies flip-flop with political winds? I would call that trying to meet the needs of their customers.
You would stand for nothing. You have no integrity. Just a hallowed out vehicle that will say or do anything for profit. A corporate sleazeball that would whore out their own mother for a few more bucks.
Amazon Has Found the Easiest Way to Influence the Trump Administration The retailer—which found itself targeted during Trump’s first term—is paying a gargantuan amount of money (40 million), a staggering amount of money for any figure, let alone one who commands relatively little public interest, for a documentary about Melania Trump.
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
I for one am glad Mr. Zuck is recovering well after the rat penis transplant.
I hope the double-orchidectomy he had last year hasn't complicated things either.
Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)
His wife reports significant improvement, she almost notices now.
The irony (Score:5, Interesting)
The creator of Facebook complaining about 1984. Bitch your entire business plan is spying on users to monetize the data. Want to talk about shadow profiles? https://www.europarl.europa.eu... [europa.eu]
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The creator of Facebook complaining about 1984. Bitch your entire business plan is spying on users to monetize the data.
It's one thing using user data to try to sell me running shoes. It's another thing manipulating posts to get people to vote a certain way. One is Orwellian. The other is a few steps beyond marketing feedback surveys that used to come in magazines.
Re:The irony (Score:4, Insightful)
The creator of Facebook complaining about 1984. Bitch your entire business plan is spying on users to monetize the data.
It's one thing using user data to try to sell me running shoes. It's another thing manipulating posts to get people to vote a certain way. One is Orwellian. The other is a few steps beyond marketing feedback surveys that used to come in magazines.
Abusing everything from my cookies to my GPS location data to sell me shoes, is the kind of shit 21st Century “marketing” is guilty of now. And in NO fucking way is that like filling out a magazine survey. Why? Because I don’t have to worry about a magazine survey database getting hacked and deciphering the rest of my life to sell on the dark web for harm and profit.
Don’t be so shortsighted as to what “marketing” has become today, and what enables that shit. Genuinely Orwellian doesn’t describe “a few steps beyond” pre-Orwellian. Even selling shoes is nothing like it was 40 years ago.
Re:The irony (Score:5, Insightful)
All Zuck cares about is being on Trump's good side, when the VP (Musk) hates Facebook and their most recent interaction was him wimping out of an MMA fight against Mark.
At this point it looks like if you aren't actively helping the GOP destroy democracy, you are the enemy.
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It sure is. Still, nice what-about-ism in attempt to distract from the real story - something that recently was loudly denied and fact checked as false - Biden administration violating Constitution by coercing social media companies to censor US Citizens. It does not matter what they were posting, First Amendment still applies.
So, at this point, we're going on Zuckerberg's word about this on the Joe Rogan show.
I'll wait for detailed accounts from other sources before I form an opinion about what really happened.
Meanwhile... (Score:2, Funny)
Oh, I'm sorry, was that not fact-checked enough?
Re:Meanwhile... (Score:4, Funny)
Fox News reported that he died of a massive methamphetamine overdose after self-medicating following his rat penis transplant.
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I saw this exact thing on the LeopardsAteMyFace subreddit [reddit.com] a few days ago but it's still fucking funny.
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Cognitive Dissonance at Internet Scale (Score:5, Insightful)
"It really is a slippery slope, and it just got to a point where it's just, OK, this is destroying so much trust, especially in the United States, to have this program." He said he was "worried" from the beginning about "becoming this sort of decider of what is true in the world."
Right. Because to build trust you have to insist that there are no objective facts, and an idiot's opinion on the Internet is just as good as any experts. It all depends on who gets the most click-views or likes or follows.
Damn if I don't want to leave this timeline sometimes.
Re: Cognitive Dissonance at Internet Scale (Score:2)
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...and an idiot's opinion on the Internet is just as good as any experts
Zuck doesnt get it (Score:5, Insightful)
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Psychopaths lack guilt and compassion but have a very good understanding of what triggers different human behaviours and become experts at victim-blaming. It's why they're rewarded when they should be stripped of their wealth and fame.
Re:Zuck doesnt get it (Score:4, Interesting)
Zuckerberg became a mega-billionaire from Facebook.
Twenty years and two billion users later, the social media network and his twelve-figure net worth kinda proves he understands people.
Even if he does think they’re “dumb fucks”.
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To be frank, what's the alternative? Facebook is a monopoly that also happens to own Instagram.
People have been trying to get off FB for a decade. But it's a good way to keep in touch with people, a good way to have proper discourse online (unlike Twitter) and it can be very entertaining.
The actual tech is shite.
But you don't have to understand people to be a monopolist.
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Its called misdirection. Magicians use it. Our spies use it. Look at my left hand making these large wild gestures. Pay no attention to my right hand making those small gestures.
It's more about self-preservation from a tyrant (Score:2)
Trump has already said Zuck was threatened into doing this.
It is scary how much power Herr Trump has before he even gets into office.
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He's talking about censorship from the Biden administration. Not sure how you jumped to all those other bizarre conclusions.
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It's misdirection. Magicians and spies are great at it. He's trying to hide that the Facebook censorship was started at the request of Herr Biden's government.
Um, what? Didn't he just come out and claim that on Rogan? How is that "hiding" anything?
Not that I believe him. Need corroboration for that. I won't just believe his narrative.
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for Musk its SpaceX and Tesla.
Musk is currently screwing over Tesla. He is massively dissuading EV buyers from selecting Tesla vehicles. Note that 2024 was not a good year for Tesla. Also, he seems to believe he should be paid $54B for turning off potential buyers.
He's afraid of Trump (Score:4, Interesting)
He's also gonna start pushing the right wing propaganda hard. He wants more H1-Bs. They all do. And he's shooting for preferential treatment in the lotteries.
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Bannon doesn't want more H1-Bs. As do others of his ilk left over from the last Trump administration. Should be interesting to see where that goes.
Re: He's afraid of Trump (Score:2)
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Responding to the less-unhinged parts of your post that need context...
Whatever happened to the "it's his platform, he can do whatever he pleases there"
That's still true. It's his free-speech right. Ad he can be praised or criticized for what he does. That's our free-speech right.
I guess immigrants are only okay when they cross southern border and "steal" redneck farmer jobs, but when they land in LA, H1B visa in hand, and *dare* go for SV hipster techie jobs, they need to be deported, for their own good of course?
H-1B holders need to be sponsored by a company in order to get an H-1B. They don't just enter the USA with one and then start job-hunting.
That said, you can change employers while on an H-1B, as long as you do it within a certain period of time after leaving your previous employer.
More hair (Score:2)
but same old zuck
Verge piece on this (Score:2)
https://www.theverge.com/2025/... [theverge.com]
Place your bets (Score:2)
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>Twitter's transformation has slashed revenue. I'm not sure how much Musk cares
Musk didn't buy Twitter for profit, he bought it to control an influential propaganda outlet.
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I think he bought it because otherwise the SEC would have come down on him very very hard for stock market manipulation. Once he was made to buy it he first threw a tantrum then decided to use it for propaganda.
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not just oligarchs, but stupid fucking oligarchs (Score:3, Insightful)
Zuckerberg likened his company's fact-checking process to a George Orwell novel, saying it was "something out of 1984" "
Clearly Mr Rat Penis pedophile has read neither 1984 or Animal Farm if that's what he thinks.
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He just believes he is more equal than the rest of us.
Doublespeak (Score:2)
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Yep. History repeats itself.
Time to change the team colors (Score:5, Informative)
"It really is a slippery slope, and it just got to a point where it's just, OK, this is destroying so much trust, especially in the United States, to have this program." He said he was "worried" from the beginning about "becoming this sort of decider of what is true in the world."
The "slippery slope" is a fallacy, always has been. It's just "I was just following orders" for the intellectuals.
1984 (Score:2)
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It's funny how scared you are that you have to write retired 304s instead of what you really mean: "whores".
What were you on when you wrote this, AC?
Believe in GOP and conspiracies (Score:5, Interesting)
True, Fox News has been saying "government bad" for 40 years, GOP has been saying "Leftists bad" for 20 years, Trump has been saying "socialism bad" for 2 years. Musk (Twitter) paid for the power to tell people what to think, ditto Jeff Bezos (Washington Post), and also a bio-tech engineer (LA times) paid for the power to censor the press. This year, the USA will be the country the billionaires paid bought, ruled by another (almost) billionaire. It will interesting to see how long their true believers (being at least 31% of the US population) agree with the government they truly deserve.
The GOP has been deleting the facts for 20 years, so now, there's only complain and blame. The flip-flopping of Trump is converting history revisionism into "We are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia." propaganda: It is truly, a post-truth country. I want to see how much time it takes for the post-truth conspiracy believers to blame billionaires. I may be disappointed: Those 'patriotic' militias in the USA weren't fighting for reproductive rights, universal education, social security or truth-in-advertising. Conspiracy believers may be similarly self-centred and fail to blame the true architects of the USA's failures.
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Let me add: Liars bad and convicted felons bad. Why is Trump going to be president again? And for the "tough on crime" party, no less?
Apparently honor, truth, decency and insight count for nothing these days. The whole thing reminds me of some 3rd world country where you can buy anything, including the presidency.
Zuck, the fuck (Score:2)
Now with even more dishonesty and cowardice.
Coincidence (Score:2)
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These billionaires don't care (Score:2, Interesting)
The incoming administration... (Score:5, Interesting)
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Being afraid of Trump I can understand. Caving on Meta policies before he gets into office in an attempt to stave off political persecution, I also understand. But why go on Rogan?
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Horseshit Zuck (Score:2, Troll)
Scumbags on Facebook continuosly lied about the vaccines. They said their were microchips in the vaccine and everyone who took them would be dead by 2025.
Being asked to stop the constant stream of lies is not 1984 you fucking evil twerp.
dear Zuck (Score:2)
Fuck Zuck (Score:2)
guess he's proving the stats right... half the peo (Score:2)
guess he's proving the stats right... half the people that said they read 1984 have never actually read the book.
Rich peoples opinions on topics affecting society should be wholly ignored as they have repeatedly proven to be ignorant, self interested twats.
Musk, Bezos, Mark.... Trump, etc are all a waste of oxygen when they speak on important issues.
Mark going on Rogan to buy some credibility with the "common folk" to regain subscribers on FB is a joke.
We're supposed to believe him? (Score:2)
We're supposed to believe the word of someone who would do or say anything for money? Someone who lacks the moral standing, or intelligence, to know the difference between correcting a lie and outright censorship?
Funny how he has no problem hiding that love child he had with that staff member at Facebook, the one he had before he got married. He must need to the money to keep paying off her silence.
"Arbiters of truth" (Score:2)
That's pretty much the end of the story.
Holy... (Score:2)
It won't make much of a difference (Score:2)
Disgusting (Score:2)
The speed at which this guy turned by the political wind, the way how he changed the tune in microseconds is what worries me, before we even go on whether he was right before or now (which is kinda irrelevant).
This is how Putins become Putins. This does not happen in isolation. All it takes is a few important people with no conscience whatsoever.
Good, let's remove all fact checking (Score:3)
Remove all fact checking and censorship. Then the wingnuts can all kill themselves with dangerous "cures" the next time there is an epidemic. The world will be a better place when they're all gone.
Zuckerberg is something out of 1984 (Score:2)
Dystopia is here.
citation needed (Score:5, Informative)
Zuckerberg told Rogan, who was a prominent skeptic of the COVID-19 vaccine, that the Biden administration would "call up the guys on our team and yell at them and cursing and threatening repercussions if we don't take down things that are true."
Just one. One email. One text-message. One voicemail.
Re:About that, forget apology, time for some of yo (Score:5, Informative)
If you actually believe this nonsense I have a hard time believing you can tie your shoes.
Fresh abuse of FP (Score:2)
Using sock puppets to befuddle any rational discussion?
Re:About that, forget apology, time for some of yo (Score:5, Insightful)
You fools really think there's no consequences to propagating a fantasy world full of lies. You think you're so special that your delusions will allow you to live a comfortable and happy life.
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And then they added "reels" which is just a way for people to promote their OnlyFans.
On my feed the Reels are primarily cute animal videos. I think it shows you more of what you watch or engage with...
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"In the 2000 election, 70% of the economy voted for Biden"
Uhh, the 2000 election was between Bush and Gore.
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Facebook is in decline largely because they didn't handle the misinformation system well.
Not really. Having misinformation on the platform drives more engagement than not having misinformation on the platform.
FB has descended into a cesspool. I don't see any updates on my friends' kids or anything even remotely interesting or relevant to me.
There's your problem. FB has gradually changed their algorithm. At this point, it mostly feeds you what they want you to engage with rather than updates from people you follow.
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Should have been the FP, though your Subject was truncated and not explained in the body... I'm guessing the incomplete word was "you" but can't figure out where you wanted to go after that. Nor did you add another comment or reply. Care to elaborate?
Re:About that, forget apology, time for some of yo (Score:4, Insightful)
Naa. One just went free and unpunished despite now being convicted of a felony. The US "justice" system is worthy of a deeply corrupt 3rd world country, nothing else.
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Remember when you thought the vaccine would kill millions and millions of people by the end of 2022?
How did that go?
Trump is literally planning concentration camps (Score:3, Insightful)
But, I mean, Kamala's laugh and the price of eggs...
Okay genius (Score:5, Interesting)
I mean he said he was gonna. Maybe he's so balls to the walls incompetent that he can't even pull off a genocide but he is at least indicated his desire to do that multiple times.
The problem with these sort of things is they are so horrific that nobody believes they happen until after they happen. Hell and increasing number of people seem to believe the last Holocaust didn't happen
Re:Okay genius (Score:5, Insightful)
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Did they forget, do they not care or do they think it's a good thing?
Re: Okay genius (Score:2)
That last thing. Remember the claim was that their parents were recklessly endangering them anyway
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Kind of a take on Well he didn't do it but if he did they deserved it.
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He'll make camps.
Prisoners are exempt from the 13th Amendment Protection. They'll then be sold off as cheap labor.
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You tell me how Donald Trump is going to deport 11 to 13 million people without concentration camps? And when the other countries refuse to take them you tell me what happens next?
There will be camps, of a sort. They will be processing camps, not concentration camps. no one will remain there long. They will not be held "pending court review of their status" or anything of the sort -they will be temporarily stored until the bus to Mexico is ready.
The deportation plan is not the "sent back to their country of origin" diplomatic method. It is the "everyone on the bus", drive to the Mexican border, "everyone off the bus, and thru the gate" plan. Once they are across the border, they
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Oh and I call bullshit on your second point. GOP have made it perfectly clear they won't punish businesses for hiring undocumented immigrants. Speaks volumes that they won't do the one thing that will solve their perceived problems in a way their political opponents support, and happens to
Re: Okay genius (Score:3)
The fact you're clueless about this, shows how little your knowledge is. The EU has many issues with nations refusing to take back "citizens" that are not guaranteed to actually be their citizen at all. Unless you can demonstrate to Mexico that each and every deported citizen is an actual Mexican citizen, then no, they won't allow them into the country. And neither will any other country, including the USA.
If you say you do, you'll have a bunch of "Americans" we wouldn't be missing, arriving on the next pla
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Unless you can demonstrate to Mexico that each and every deported citizen is an actual Mexican citizen, then no, they won't allow them into the country. And neither will any other country, including the USA .
Wait, then how the hell did these tens of millions of people get into the USA then?
I think the GP was talking about countries deporting US citizens back to the USA. The USA's position would be that the person presenting at the US border would need to prove their a citizen. Does that help?
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Oops.
The USA's position would be that the person presenting at the US border would need to prove they're a citizen.
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I think you are confusing the gp with Trump's vice president. You know the person who actually called Trump Hitler.
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"The young optimistic libertarian tech bros of yesteryear" are the people who bought your government, your media and you with your tax money and who will now neuralink you so that you accept your liquefaction into soylent green with the satisfaction of an Ameglian Major Cow.
It ain't 1984 that's coming for you, it's a brave new world.
And I'm only, like, half-joking.
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"he young optimistic libertarian tech bros of yesteryear"
The Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it!
It's ironic that the iPhone+Facebook killed this spirit.
Re: The woke MSM are Liars, too. Left Wing, DEI LI (Score:2)
Don't you have Truth social and Parler ?
I hear they are great places to meet other closeted straight white males.