The outgoing president took to the bully pulpit on Friday, while the CEO of Meta Inc. criticized Joe Rogan today, offering a different view of facts and truth.
Joe Biden today issued a critical response as president to Mark Zuckerberg’s meta-motivation for pulling back on fact-checking, which is widely seen as more gravitated toward Donald Trump. “It’s important to tell the truth,” he said.
Biden, in what is likely his last news conference as president, spoke briefly about his economic legacy before speaking on a wide range of topics. In a rare interaction with White House reporters, Biden touched on whether Vice President Kamala Harris could have defeated her current predecessor and successor in last year’s election if she were to run again in 2028. (“It would be a decision for her to make”), the Ukraine war, amnesty, domestic terrorism.
But the news Mehta announced on Fox News earlier this week seemed to hit home with the 82-year-old Biden that he plans to abandon fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram. It was.
Regarding Mehta’s recent support for Trump, Biden said, “I think the very idea of distancing ourselves from fact-checking and not reporting on anything related to discrimination is contrary to American justice.The way we talk about each other. I think it’s contrary to that.” Move.
“It’s completely contrary to everything America stands for.”
“We want to tell the truth, but we haven’t always done that in our country,” the president said. “We want to tell the truth. And when a billionaire buys something and, by the way, we don’t fact-check anything from this point on… Millions of people are reading this article and online ,” Biden added.
“I think it’s really embarrassing.”
Mr. Zuckerberg, who is facing an antitrust trial launched by Trump 1.0 this spring over whether Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp created a social media monopoly, is trying to please Mr. Trump by selling pretzels. It’s twisting like that. Pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago, promotion of former Republican operative to top communications director, and $1 million donation to President Trump’s inauguration fund are among the millions to curry favor with the former Celebrity Apprentice host. These are just some of the tactics used by the wealthy.
In many ways mirroring the position of First Buddy and X owner Elon Musk, Zuckerberg was at least outspoken about abandoning fact-checking. “The recent election feels like a cultural tipping point to prioritize speech again,” Zuckerberg, who appears to be a surf buddy, said in a video posted earlier this week. “That’s why we’re going back to basics and focusing on reducing mistakes, simplifying policies, and restoring free expression on our platform.”
Zuckerberg said “legitimately bad things” like drugs, terrorism and child exploitation would continue to be regulated on Meta’s social media platform, but he said filters would not stop everything on such issues. He acknowledged that it was likely not. “The reality is it’s a trade-off,” he added. “This means less malicious material will be discovered, but it will also reduce the number of innocent posts and accounts that we accidentally delete.”
In response, Zuckerberg told an audience of one, in his pure, red voice, that the goal of ending most fact-checking about the Mets was to “simplify content policies and eliminate more fact-checking on topics like immigration and gender.” The idea was to remove the restrictions on It deviates from mainstream discourse. ”
Just a few years ago, Facebook’s parent company introduced stricter fact-checking protocols following widespread reports that the platform was a source of disinformation during the 2016 election. Zuckerberg was not necessarily close friends with Trump during his first term, but he banned the 45th president from Facebook for two years the day after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The suspension was lifted in January 2023, but relations between Trump and Zuckerberg have not improved much since then.
Trump, who continued on his path to renomination and ultimately reelection, promised to send Zuckerberg to life in prison in late 2023 for allegedly turning social media platforms against him in the 2020 election. .
Now that’s all behind the boys.
In fact, hours before the retiring Biden spoke today, Zuckerberg revealed his hometown to Joe Rogan in a sit-down interview in Austin.
“We want women to succeed, and we need companies that can unlock the full value of having great talent, regardless of their background or gender,” said Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer. ), the company’s CEO told President Trump’s favorite podcaster. . “But I think all of these things can always move forward a little bit.”
In response, Meta, like many American companies in the new Trump era, announced today that it would end its DEI program, which Zuckerberg himself had previously hailed as essential to the company’s growth and success.
Mr. Zuckerberg elaborated on his self-described “journey,” sarcastically telling Mr. Rogan: ) He might have been able to win if there had been no misinformation. Actually, people can’t believe this. ” ”
Mr. Zuckerberg completely criticized the Biden team’s censorship efforts (which actually made his team look worse), saying that the hitherto “culturally emasculated” tech giants need more Y-chromosomes. He told Mr. Logan that he thought he needed to get one. “I think masculine energy is a good thing, and of course there’s a lot of that in society, but I think corporate culture was actually trying to escape from masculine energy,” he said. spoke.
In his farewell address, which the White House says the president is scheduled to deliver on January 15, Mr. Biden may try to squeeze in some final words in the final days of his administration.
