A recent press video announcement and press release issued on Jan. 7, 2025 by Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook and its parent company, Meta Platforms, said that Meta will end its fact-checking program and “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship.” In addition, the company will go back to its previous format of allowing more political content to be visible on its platforms.1 Zuckerberg recently appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast and admitted the company had gone too far in complying with requests from the Biden administration to censor information related to the COVID-19 shots.2
During the three-hour interview with Rogan, Zuckerberg said that his own company’s fact-checking process was “something out of 1984,” referencing the George Orwell novel 1984 depicting a totalitarian government that uses censorship to control its citizens. “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,” Zuckerberg stated.2
During the Meta video announcement about changes in free speech policies, Zuckerberg said that factcheckers had been too politically biased and destroyed more trust than they created. He vowed to prioritize free speech and announced that factcheckers would be replaced with a community notes program, similar to the social media platform X, which relies on other users to add context and caveats to controversial posts.1
“In recent years we’ve developed increasingly complex systems to manage content across out platforms, partly in response to societal and political pressure to moderate content. This approach has gone too far,” Zuckerberg admitted in his Meta announcement. He went onto state that he wanted to return to the fundamental commitment to free expression that he spoke about in a Georgetown University speech in 2019. The content of that speech stood in sharp contrast to the censorship of speech approach that was taken on Facebook and Instagram beginning in 2020 after the government declared a coronavirus pandemic and put pressure on social media platforms to block public conversations about vaccination and health, including COVID shot risks and failures and the origins of SARS-CoV-2.
Doctors, Vaccine Information Censored on Social Media Platforms
In his speech at Georgetown, Zuckerberg argued that free expression had been the driving force behind progress in American society and that inhibiting speech often reinforces existing institutions and power structures instead of empowering people. “More people across the spectrum believe that achieving the political outcomes they think matter is more important than every person having a voice. I think that’s dangerous,” he stated at Georgetown in October 2019.1
But a few short months later, as the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus began appearing in the news and on social media, social media censorship was set in motion. The wide introduction of the term “misinformation” was used as justification to remove posts or people from platforms entirely. Doctors, researchers, politicians, vaccine safety and informed consent advocates and others who spoke out about the disease and asked questions about or publicly discussed reactions to the COVID shots, were censored, shadow banned or removed entirely from social media platforms. Videos posted on YouTube or Facebook were removed from platforms simply for stating alternative views or voicing concerns.3 4
The Biden administration went as far as to temporarily form a Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) as an advisory board to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The aim of the board was to protect national security by “combating misinformation, malinformation, and disinformation that threatens the security of the homeland.” The board was in operation for a few short months before it was paused, and later terminated, after public backlash and the raising of constitutional issues.5
Biden Administration Coerced Meta to Censor More Aggressively
During the Rogan interview, Zuckerberg said that, with regard to information about COVID-19 and the COVID shots, 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 claimed that even satirical memes making jokes about the vaccine were requested to be removed. He admitted that his company had gone too far in complying with the administration’s requests and that he had been worried from the beginning about “becoming this sort of decided of what is true in the world.”2
Despite Zuckerberg’s aim to get back to free speech, some disagree with the policy change. The Real Facebook Oversight Board—an outside accountability organization comprised of academics, lawyers, and civil rights advocates called the changes “political pandering.”
“Meta’s announcement today is a retreat from any sane and safe approach to content moderation,” the group said in a statement.6
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Click here to view References:1 Booth R. Meta to get rid of factcheckers and recommend more political content. The Guardian Jan. 7, 2025.
2 Singh A. Zuckerberg on Rogan: Facebook’s censorship was “something out of 1984.” Axios Jan. 10, 2025.
3 Passantino J. Social media giants remove viral video with false coronavirus claims that Trump retweeted. CNN July 28, 2020.
4 Fisher BL.The Silencing of Barbara Loe Fisher and the National Vaccine Information Center in the Digital Public Square: A Violation of Freedom of Thought, Speech and Conscience. National Vaccine Information Center Nov. 1, 2023.
5 Sands G. DHS shuts down disinformation board months after its effort were paused. CNN Aug. 24, 2022.
6 Duffy C. Meta is getting rid of fact checkers. Zuckerberg acknowledged more harmful content will appear on the platforms now. CNN Jan. 7, 2025.
5 Responses
We initially did willingly and consciously engage in illegal felonious behavior which crushed individuals rights, caused the death of tens or possibly hundreds of millions by with holding and censoring valid life saving information, developed software to assist in this effort, redirected substantial manpower within our organization to accomplish these illegal outcomes, colluded with corrupt government agencies and officials as wall as corrupt private industry persons, and everyone knew this was happening throughout the organization and beyond.
That is called racketeering. But don’t worry, they’ve developed personal integrity and ethic, and promise not to engage in this illegal behavior anymore. In what reality do people admit to activity which should land them in orange jumpsuits and shackles, which should cost themselves and their businesses every last cent in liability and fines, but they get to pardon themselves with an online apology? The system is completely corrupt and there is only the illusion of law and order. Want solutions; Fines based on income. Break up the companies with Monopoly rules. Use RICO statutes to prosecute everyone involved. They’ve admitted their complicit illegal behavior online and under video recording! When is there enough evidence? Anyone not outraged by this is being actively conditioned to accept a feudalistic society, that the law does not apply to wealthy people, that you do not have guarantees of personal rights.
We have investigated ourselves and determined we could have been more legally compliant and may have broken the law. So sorry. You want fried rice with that? Housekeeping, want me fluff pillow? Who’s still buying this? Addicts tend to gravitate towards each other, so do criminals. That’s why they can’t get off of facebook. Imagine in the real world purposefully inviting power hungry sycophants and felonious criminals into your living room and looking the other way while they committed ten felonies every second with impunity, harmed and directly lied to and silenced your family and friends, and your government officials, doctors, police, attornyies, insurance company representatives, social media persons, were all there, willingly and knowingly participating together. Everything’s fine, a few people died, others were harmed for life, scarred financially and emotionally in ways they’ll never be able to heal. There was no financial liability or compensation for most victims, don’t worry they took care of the military people, everyone else is out of luck. No big deal. They’re so important, they got to keep all their money and wealth without worry of any prosecution. Because they analogized and promised not to be ravenous wolves and felonious conspirator racketeering criminals anymore.
Exactly. Zuckerface is just jealous that Musk started kissing Trump’s butt before he did. You can’t trust any of them. Radical idea: let’s all ditch ALL social media. The experiment has failed. Society is worse than ever.
Epic comment Colorado! Truth spoken!
Thanks for so eloquently putting the words to my anger.
Fecesbook users are the problem. Every user logon and clicked link generates revenue for Fecesbook.
Just stop it!