The following report is by Mediate:
Zuckerberg’s decision to end Meta’s fact-checking program drew a rebuke from Biden on Friday, when he told reporters “The idea that, you know, a billionaire can buy something and say, ‘By the way, we’re not gonna fact check anything,’ and you know, you have millions of people reading, going online, reading this stuff, it is– Anyway, I think it’s really shameful.”
On Monday’s edition of CNN Newsroom With Jim Acosta, Acosta and Stelter defended the Biden administration against Zuckerberg’s recent complaints, and agreed with Biden that the fact-checking move was “really shameful” because “We’ve got to have facts in this society”:
JIM ACOSTA: Brian, this is the same man who banned Trump from Facebook and Instagram in 2021. I was at the White House the day that he was kicked off of Twitter. A lot has changed. What a difference four years makes.
BRIAN STELTER: And I’m glad you brought that up. It was Zuckerberg. It was Facebook that banned Trump from the platform, just as Twitter did. And now here we are. And there’s very much a MAGA makeover of Meta happening.
Look, I heard a business analyst describe Zuckerberg as a really effective shapeshifter, and I think that’s a great phrase for what is happening. Zuckerberg is shifting because he believes that’s what’s best for his shareholders. And remember, he owns 13% of Meta. He is a billionaire many times over thanks to that stock price that’s been on a tear lately.
So he is trying to evolve the company to make sure it is successful in the Trump years. And that means, number one, being cozy to Trump, to the president-elect, keeping it in the good graces of the government, maybe making that pesky FTC antitrust case go away. It has a lot of business before the U.S. government. And I think that’s ultimately what this is all about.
JIM ACOSTA: Yeah, and he’s complaining about the Biden administration, you know, yelling at them to say, you know, get some of this Covid misinformation off their platforms. I mean, isn’t that that’s sort of what the White House should be doing, right?
I mean, tell folks to get this garbage off these platforms, if you can, as best as you can– to get rid of fact checking altogether, especially during these wildfires. I mean, that sounds like something that could really, you know, backfire big-time.
BRIAN STELTER: It’s just so easy for years later to sit around and say, you know, they were pressuring us. We went too far during an emergency, right?
The early months of the Covid pandemic were an emergency unlike anything that we’ve lived through before. And were there some mistakes? Were there some screw ups? Were there some poor decisions? Of course.
But it’s so easy to sit back and claim that now, as opposed to honestly reflect on what happened. And I think so much of this debate about free speech, you know, acts as if it’s very simple, when in fact, many of these operations are very complex.
Ultimately, it’s about values. And I was so struck, Jim, by President Biden kind of shaming Meta the other day, shaming Zuckerberg and saying that it was shameful to remove the fact checkers. Biden obviously valuing fact, checking, even though he was often fact jacked during his four years in office.
JIM ACOSTA: Right. I mean, Fact-checking is a good thing! It’s not a bad thing!
And Brian, I mean, is that correct that they’re just not going to have fact checking altogether on these very powerful platforms?
BRIAN STELTER: All of Meta’s, financing of fact checking is going away effective in March and it’ll be replaced by community notes, you know, letting users police themselves and decide what is true and false.
It’s going to result in a much more chaotic and confusing information environment. And that’s ultimately the big picture about what this is about and why it matters.
And that’s what Biden was getting at in his recent interview with USA Today. He said his biggest regret as president was not being able to navigate this changing information environment. We’ve heard some of his cabinet secretaries say the same thing, that they feel like they’re outmatched in this environment.
Ultimately, when we’re talking about facts versus fiction, we should ask who benefits from the fictions? Who benefits from an environment where there are more lies, more propaganda, more innuendo spreading? And who suffers?
You know, that’s the kind of cost benefit analysis that I think Zuckerberg is kind of trying to avoid as he curry favor with the incoming administration.
JIM ACOSTA: Yeah, fact checking is not always popular, but it is necessary. We’ve got to have facts in this society.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
Who even takes CNN seriously anymore? But the worms in the media “loveth to oppress” (Hosea 12:7), and are some of if not the most dishonest dogs on this earth.
To comment briefly on Zuckerborg getting rid of fact-checking and some of the more overt censorship on Facebook – don’t fall for it. Hip, hip, hooray! We can all now post our wojak memes complaining about how we’re all slaves without being fact-checked for it! (sarcasm). Censorship will still exist, just as it does on Musk’s X, but in different forms, now that Trump’s second administration is fully embracing big-tech oligarchs, so they have to give oppression a facelift and a bow on top.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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