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Zuckerberg On Rogan: Facebook's Censorship Was 'Something Out of 1984' (axios.com) 82

Posted by BeauHD from the arbiter-of-truth dept.
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

Zuckerberg On Rogan: Facebook's Censorship Was 'Something Out of 1984' More | Reply

Zuckerberg On Rogan: Facebook's Censorship Was 'Something Out of 1984'

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  • Lol (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 10, 2025 @10:40PM (#65080007)

    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.

    • 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: (Score:3)

      by Zocalo ( 252965 )
      Because, like many others who have abruptly changed their position with the recent change in political wind direction, he's just firmly nailed his colours to the mast as someone who doesn't give a flying fuck about anyone else and it's all about what best, right now, for Zuck. Unlike most of the others however, and rather surprisingly I have to admit, it seems that Zuck still has enough of a shred of humanity left that he realised that it is painfully obvious to anyone watching that is what he has done and
      • Why wouldn't companies flip-flop with political winds? I would call that trying to meet the needs of their customers.

  • Well... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Barny ( 103770 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @10:43PM (#65080013) Journal

    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.

  • The irony (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @10:45PM (#65080017)

    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)

      by JBMcB ( 73720 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @10:53PM (#65080043)

      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.

      • 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:5, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Saturday January 11, 2025 @05:29AM (#65080477) Homepage Journal

        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.

  • 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

    • for this country's version of the Gypsies. It is happening here. Right now.

      But, I mean, Kamala's laugh and the price of eggs...

    • "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.

    • "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)

    by Hans Lehmann ( 571625 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @10:46PM (#65080021)
    Facebook founder and convicted pedophile Mark Zuckerberg, dead at age 36, says social media sites should not fact-check posts.

    Oh, I'm sorry, was that not fact-checked enough?

  • Cognitive Dissonance at Internet Scale (Score:4, Insightful)

    by AlanObject ( 3603453 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @10:52PM (#65080035)

    "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.

  • Zuck doesnt get it (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @11:12PM (#65080077)
    Hes trying to jump on the Trump train but hes simply doing it wrong. For the most part, Trump and Musk are acting like clowns in order to distract the population from what they really care about - for Trump its his money-making schemes, and for Musk its SpaceX and Tesla. Seriously, if you listen to those two guys with a critical ear you will realize that almost everything they say is designed to distract, overwhelm and trigger people. Theyre runnning interference for what truly matters to them. And theyre very effective at it. Zuck is actively drawing public attention to his moneymaking ventures. Bad bad bad idea. Literally the opposite of what he should be doing. It’s almost like Zuck doesnt really understand people while Trump and Musk have very good understandings of human psychology

    • ... good understandings of human psychology.

      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.

    • 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”.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by e3m4n ( 947977 )

      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)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @11:15PM (#65080083)
    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. He wants more H1-Bs. They all do. And he's shooting for preferential treatment in the lotteries.

    • 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

    • 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.

  • Well, it's been fun but we're fucked.

  • but same old zuck

  • Twitter's transformation has slashed revenue. I'm not sure how much Musk cares, but I do think Zuckerberg cares. Be interesting to see what he does differently and if the outcome is different.

    • >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.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by kmoser ( 1469707 )
        I look very askance at anybody, individual or corporation, who didn't flee Xitter the moment he purchased it and began his shenanigans. Media pundits who claim, "well, it's a major platform and we have to be on it" are part of the problem: by making a presence on a platform owned by a fascist, you support fascism. If that's not biased, I don't know what is.

  • not just oligarchs, but stupid fucking oligarchs (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cats-paw ( 34890 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @11:35PM (#65080121) Homepage

    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.

  • He's not worried about fact checking inappropriately taking down a few technically true things amidst the torrent of misinformation anymore than conservatives are really worried about their normal bullshit instead of their "right" to spam slurs and death threats on someone else's platform.
    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
  • given the asshole saying it is siding with totalitarian fascists.

  • Time to change the team colors (Score:5, Informative)

    by scalptalc ( 6477834 ) on Friday January 10, 2025 @11:48PM (#65080147)

    "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.

  • I thought MAGA was all about turning the clock back on social progress. is forty years not enough ?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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)

    by NotEmmanuelGoldstein ( 6423622 ) on Saturday January 11, 2025 @12:58AM (#65080235)

    ... as arbiters of truth ...

    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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      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.

  • Now with even more dishonesty and cowardice.

  • Surely this has nothing to do with the incoming president threatening Mark Zuckerberg with life in prison. Definitely not. "and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election." Nope, totally unrelated.
    • This likely has more to do with the Facebook audience probably being about 70-75% comprised of Trump voters.
  • We now have the numbers showing that populations that were more subject to anti-vax propaganda suffered more deaths, but obviously these billionaires don't care. We've seen how hate campaigns on social media have led to mass violence in developing countries, but in their view countering hate speech is "1984". What they believe not to be "1984", instead, is spying every human being around the globe and using that information for obtaining money and power.

  • The incoming administration... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by magnetar513 ( 1384317 ) on Saturday January 11, 2025 @02:07AM (#65080317)
    threatened to jail him, so really, his changing the policies is probably more a result of political coercion more than the examples he discusses. There is a pending Supreme Court case that may determine whether the owners of large social media platforms are permitted to moderate at all, and the outcome could have repercussions on sites like Bluesky.

    • 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?

      • Because this is more about catering to an audience (which is the business of FB) than any personal political beliefs or fear of persecution.

  • 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.

  • What a suck-up. Zuck ... try to be more subtle. It is too obvious.
  • Facebook was started as a platform to rate and objectify women on campus. Unsurprisingly it has been downhill ever since. Fuck this creep. I hope FB burns to the ground.

  • 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.

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