Mark Zuckerberg defends recent meta pivot in three-hour interview with Joe Rogan

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg defended his decision to scale back Meta’s content moderation policies on Friday Appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Zuckerberg faced widespread criticism over the decision, including… Of employees within his own company.

“It probably depends on who you ask,” Zuckerberg said when asked about how to receive meta updates.

the Major updates announced by Meta this week It was ending its independent fact-checker program and replacing it with a community feedback program like X. This means that Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will rely more on community members to report misinformation. The company also said it would increase the caps on its automated content filters. This means that fewer bad posts will be automatically removed on Meta platforms, but also fewer good posts will be accidentally deleted. Meta did not announce this however It is said to be killing its biggest DEI effort.

In a frank and wide-ranging conversation that lasted nearly three hours, Zuckerberg explained why he was taking his social media platforms back, in his words, to the roots of free expression.

“You can’t build one of these companies unless you believe in giving people a voice,” Meta’s CEO said. “The whole point of social media is to give people the power to share what they want. It goes back to our original mission of giving people the power to share and making the world more open and connected.

It is impossible to ignore the timing of these decisions. Zuckerberg announced these changes just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration. Formerly elected president He claimed that Meta’s CEO conspired against him in the 2020 electionHe is said to have threatened Zuckerberg with prison if he did it again.

When it comes to Trump, Zuckerberg said he’s very optimistic about the next president because he “just wants America to win.” The CEO noted how important it is to have a government that defends American technology companies abroad, in an apparent nod The scrutiny Meta faced in the European Union.

However, Zuckerberg claimed that the timing of these changes was purely coincidental, and that there is never a good time to make major changes to content moderation. In fact, Meta’s CEO said these changes have been a long time coming.

“I was really worried from the beginning that I would become the kind of person who decides what’s right in the world,” Zuckerberg said. “It’s a crazy situation for the billions of people who use your service.”

In the past decade, Meta’s CEO says people have begun to push for ideological censorship on his platforms. He specifically pointed to two events in which this came to a head: the 2016 election for President of the United States and the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Zuckerberg said the Biden administration pressured them to remove the real information. Meta’s CEO said some concerns about vaccine side effects that Meta removed at the time should not be dismissed as misinformation.

The Meta CEO told Rogan that It is worth noting, Many advertisers have left X in recent years due to its content moderation policies,displace it X is now challenging it in court Like collusion.

Rogan and Zuckerberg deviated from content moderation to a wide range of topics during Friday’s episode, including jiu-jitsu, artificial intelligence and broader shifts in American culture.

Meta’s CEO said he sees a sea change happening, as people have less trust in government officials and the established media. Instead, social media creators and podcast hosts, like Rogan himself, are gaining influence and trust.

This sentiment is reflected in Meta’s recent transformation of news on its platforms, which the company briefly showcased Stop promoting news or political content completely. However, Zuckerberg indicated this week that he would do so Stage this political content again To its promotional algorithms.

At another point, Zuckerberg pointed out how Western society, especially corporate America, has become “emasculated” and “emasculated.” He championed the need for a more masculine presence in the country and its businesses.

Zuckerberg noted several times during the podcast that he has turned to the media a lot in the past 10 years, taking blame for things outside of his control. This is not the first time Zuckerberg has said that Meta will bear less responsibility For everything bad on its platform moving forward. However, he seemed more frank and outspoken about the subject than ever in a conversation on Friday.

“We just got to this point where there were things you couldn’t say (on our platforms) that were the mainstream discourse,” Zuckerberg said, referring to how Meta silences conservative voices.

The Meta CEO brought up how Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has repeatedly mentioned it He stated that women should not be allowed to serve in combat roles. Zuckerberg said that under Meta’s previous content moderation rules, such comments would not be allowed because they excluded a protected class of people. Zuckerberg said that under Meta’s new policies, such comments would be acceptable.

“If it’s OK to say it in front of Congress, you should probably be able to discuss it on social media,” he said.

Regarding Dana White, the Meta CEO said he added the UFC president to his board because of his entrepreneurial leadership, and to have more people with a “strong backbone” in his company.

“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 who will advise us on how to handle these situations,” Zuckerberg said on White.