Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his decision to scale back Meta's content moderation policies on Friday on Joe Rogan's podcast. Zuckerberg's decision was met with widespread criticism, including from employees within his own company.
When asked how Meta's updates were received, Zuckerberg said: "It probably depends on who you ask."
The major update Meta announced this week is that it will discontinue its independent fact-checking program and replace it with a community note-taking program like X. This means Facebook, Instagram and Threads will rely more on community members to flag misinformation. The company also said it would increase the threshold for automatic content filters. This means that fewer bad posts will be automatically deleted on the Meta platform, but at the same time, fewer good posts will be deleted by mistake. While Meta did not announce the news, it was reported that it would cancel its previous DEI efforts.
In a wide-ranging and candid conversation that lasted nearly three hours, Zuckerberg explained why he is repositioning his social media platform as a source of free expression.
Meta CEO said: "You only start a company like this if you believe in giving people a voice. The whole point of social media is to enable people to share what they want. This goes back to our original mission, which is to empower people to share and make the world more open and connected."
The timing of these decisions cannot be ignored. Zuckerberg announced the changes just days before Donald Trump took office. The president-elect previously claimed that Meta's CEO was plotting against him in the 2020 election and reportedly threatened Zuckerberg with jail time if he did so again.
When it comes to Trump, Zuckerberg said he's quite optimistic about the incoming president because he "just wants America to win." The CEO noted how important it is to have an administration that defends U.S. tech companies abroad, appearing to reference the scrutiny Meta faces in the European Union.
However, Zuckerberg claimed that the timing of these changes was purely coincidental and that there is never a good time for big content moderation changes. In fact, these changes have been a long time coming.
"I've been worried from the beginning that I would be the decider of truth in the world," Zuckerberg said. "For the billions of people who use your service, that's kind of a crazy situation."
Meta's CEO said that over the past decade, people began pushing for ideologically based censorship on his platform. He mentioned two events in particular: the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the onset of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Zuckerberg said the Biden administration pressured them to remove real information. Meta’s CEO said some of the concerns about vaccine side effects that Meta removed at the time should not be viewed as misinformation.
The Meta CEO told Rogan that X and Twitter "do a better job than us" when it comes to content moderation, noting how their platforms will adopt community notes features. Notably, some advertisers have left X in recent years due to its content moderation policies, and X is currently challenging its collusion in court.
On Friday's show, Rogen and Zuckerberg pivoted from content moderation to a wide range of topics, including jiu-jitsu, artificial intelligence and broad shifts in American culture.
Meta’s CEO said he sees a sea change taking place, with people trusting government officials and established media less. In their place are social media creators and podcast hosts, like Rogen himself, who are growing in influence and trust.
Meta's recent shift toward news on its platform reflects this sentiment, with the company at one point stopping promoting news or political content entirely. However, Zuckerberg said this week that it would gradually reincorporate this political content into its promotion algorithm.
Zuckerberg also pointed out that Western society, especially American companies, has become "emasculated" and "neutralized." He defended the need for a greater male presence in the country and in business.
Several times throughout the podcast, Zuckerberg hinted that he had listened too much to the media over the past decade and took responsibility for things outside of his control. This isn't the first time Zuckerberg has said Meta will be less responsible for all bad behavior on its platform in the future. But in Friday's conversation, he appeared more outspoken and bolder than ever on the topic.
Zuckerberg mentioned how Meta has silenced conservative voices, saying: "We've just reached a point where there are certain things you can't say [on our platform] that are mainstream speech."
The Meta CEO mentioned how Trump's nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has repeatedly stated that women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles. Zuckerberg said the comments were not allowed under Meta's previous content moderation rules because they excluded a protected category of people. Zuckerberg said the comments would be allowed under Meta's new policy.
"If it's okay to say it in Congress, it should be okay to debate it on social media," Zuckerberg said.
Regarding Dana White, Meta's CEO said that he asked the UFC chairman to join the board of directors because of his corporate leadership and to give the company more people with "backbone."
"We have a lot of governments and people around the world putting a lot of pressure on our company, and we need some strong people to advise us on how to handle these situations," Zuckerberg said of White.
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