Zuckerberg On Rogan: Facebook's Censorship Was 'Something Out of 1984' (axios.com) 76
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
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.
Re:About that, forget apology, time for some of yo (Score:4, 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.
Re: (Score:1)
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.
Lol (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
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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:4, 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]
Re:The irony (Score:5, 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.
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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.
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
Re:The irony (Score:4, 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.
Do you think it can't happen here because (Score:2)
we speak English?
Or because we are somehow a nation of the New Man who is immune to the petty tyrannies of the Old World?
No. It hadn't happened here because we were rich and secure enough to not feel the need to be in each other's business and because enough of us took this whole Freedom thing seriously.
Covid sure took the stuffing out of the former, and generations of passive complacency and stupor really did a number on the latter.
So here we are. The young optimistic libertarian tech bros of yesteryear ar
Trump is literally planning concentration camps (Score:1, Troll)
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: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
He'll puts them on busses, not in camps. There will be no "Arbeit macht frei" or gas chambers. Most of them will self-deport once tens of thousands are removed. Which is basically what happened the last time he was President. People left of their own volition, especially once employers became scared of hiring them under the table or hiring them with stolen credentials to fool eVerify.
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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.
Re: (Score:2)
"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.
Meanwhile... (Score:3, 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.
Re: (Score:1)
Fox news lied again. Lizard people do not die, they ship back to https://youtu.be/h47SDZdaQHM?t... [slashdot.org]">their moon base underground, as we saw in that brilliant banned documentary from a few years ago.
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Well, see, the slashdot lizard people fucked up the link. Here it is ...Hidden in plantext... https://youtu.be/h47SDZdaQHM?t... [youtu.be]
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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.
Re: (Score:1)
I heard he was killed when a gay hookup went wrong.
Re: Meanwhile... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Cognitive Dissonance at Internet Scale (Score:3, 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)
Zuck doesnt get it (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
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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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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.
He's afraid of Trump (Score:5, 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.
Re: He's afraid of Trump (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
He's afraid Trump will go after FB and Musk will be able to take over with some weird offshoot of X. He's also gonna start pushing the right wing propaganda hard.
Whatever happened to the "it's his platform, he can do whatever he pleases there" that you were oh-so-fond of saying when he was using his platform to push Marxist propaganda and censor everything else, while brownnosing his Democrat overlords? Sucks now that the shoe isn't on the left foot, eh?
He wants more H1-Bs. They all do. And he's shooting for preferential treatment in the lotteries.
You racist asshole, why do you hate immigrants? Because they're brown? 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
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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.
It's been a good ride (Score:2)
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)
Re: (Score:2)
>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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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.
Re: (Score:2)
He just believes he is more equal than the rest of us.
His thinking... (Score:1)
Trump won and he's polishing the knob so Trump doesn't knock him lower on the net worth high score list. End of story. That obnoxious little sociopath (and well known rat penis enthusiast) is doing what he thinks is most
Doublespeak (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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)
Re: (Score:1)
I thought MAGA was all about turning the clock back on social progress. is forty years not enough ?
If we think going woke and DEI is “progress”, let’s see how many DEI programs exist even a year from now. Much less a decade.
If we think modern feminism is “progress”, let’s see how many retired 304s wish they had not aborted their ideology into extinction. Quite literally. 4B is the answer to MGTOW? Good luck with that shit in a single generation. After all there won’t be another to carry on that not-so-timeless wisdom.
If we think “social” media is
Believe in GOP and conspiracies (Score:4, 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)
These billionaires don't care (Score:2, Interesting)
The incoming administration... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
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?
Horseshit Zuck (Score:1)
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)