Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg recently announced a surprising 180-degree turnaround for Facebook and Instagram. The companies will no longer use third-party fact-checkers to censor users. Instead, they will switch to a community notes system, much like Elon Musk’s X uses. Zuckerberg also lamented the political bias of elitist fact checkers and added Trump supporter Dana White to Meta’s Board of Directors. But can we trust this “conservative” Big Tech makeover? Glenn explains what he believes is REALLY driving Zuckerberg to seemingly embrace free speech once again.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: I want to talk to you, did you see what just happened with Facebook, Stu? And Mark Zuckerberg?
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: Uh-huh. Fascinating.
GLENN: Uh-huh. Yeah. It is.
And I'm wondering what is happening here.
You know, beyond the -- beyond the headline.
Here it is, just so you know.
Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday morning, that content moderation. And other restrictions on speech will be lifted across Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms, as Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Huh. Now, wait. Hold on just a second.
What?
So you know, all traffic decline has been as high as 85 to 90 percent across all Blaze media pages. So when I've said. I mean, we've had -- and, Stu, you can -- you probably know the numbers better than I do.
We're having more success and a bigger platform, bigger voice, than any time in my career.
In the last three years.
The show and everything is just on fire!
And yet, our traffic on social media, has declined by 85 to 90 percent?
It's just not possible! Okay? There's no way, other than, we've been severely contained, if you will.
And, you know, I would like to ask Mark Zuckerberg, where do I go to get my audience back?
Where do I -- you know, you've kind of -- people have kind of fallen out of the habit. If you get all of your news from Facebook, God forbid.
Or Instagram.
We've been so suppressed, all of a sudden, are we going to pop back up?
It would be interesting to see. By the way, this is why your direct support to Blaze TV, means so much.
We wouldn't have been able to survive everything, if we hadn't had built TheBlaze. And built it the way we did. So thank you for your subscription. If you haven't subscribed, please do today.
So he's ending all of the -- the content moderation.
Now, what he did before, was to go to places, that, you know, they're absolute experts.
You know, like the Southern Poverty Law Center. They know what's going on. Poynter Institute they know what's true.
And they've decided, that they are going to go back to their roots, I'm quoting.
And focus on reducing mistakes.
Simplifying our policies. And restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, we're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X!
Now, hmm.
Hang on just a second.
Wasn't X the most dangerous platform in the world?
Weren't those community notes just not enough?
The company's third party fact-checking program was put into place, following Trump's first election to manage content and misinformation on its platforms, which executives conceded was a result of political pressure.
But now they say, they've just gone too far.
We went to independent, third party fact-checkers says the global chief of affairs officer at Meta. It's become clear, there's too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check.
Because basically, they get to fact-check whatever they see on the platform.
STU: No!
It can't be true!
No!
Too much bias for the fact-checkers.
But they're just checking facts, Glenn.
GLENN: Yes. I know. I know.
Isn't that weird?
Now, listen to this.
I mean, today, I think today's show is kind of -- kind of based on, no!
Really? You know. The things that are happening now. Wait until next hour.
I'm going to tell you a story, that is -- is just jaw, dropping in how the world works, between you and the elites.
Here's a case, in this hour. We're talking about Facebook.
How does it work between you and the elites?
Well, they didn't listen to you. They wanted to shut you up.
They went to the elites, who were on the winning side last time. And said, okay.
What do we need to do?
What do we need to do, to make sure that, you know, we're on your side? And we can get all that government money.
And nobody will hassle us.
What do we need to do?
So they did it. And they went to the elite's selection of fact-checkers.
Now that the world has changed, at least here in America.
Now, they're still not listening to you.
This isn't because you said something. This is because Donald Trump has changed America.
And now they see the writing on the walls. And so, again, it's not you.
It's power! And it's disgusting. The company is ending their fact-checkers, completely.
And it will instead, rely on the platform users to false flag -- or, yeah. Flag false or misleading content.
Instead of going to some so-called. This is Facebook saying this.
Instead of going to some so-called expert, it will rely on the community.
And the people on the platform, to provide their own commentary.
To -- to something that they've read.
This is what freedom of speech is!
There's no -- there's no expert that sits around in your -- you know -- in your -- in your town, that checks everything somebody says. And then says, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
That's untrue.
And they have a political bias?
It just doesn't happen in real life. But, again, let's remember that social media, is not real life.
But at least it's starting -- maybe, it will start reflecting it a little bit more. Where you have the freedom to say, what you think.
STU: But -- for one quick second.
Because Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have like a rivalry.
Remember, they were going to have a fight? Like, a cage match, a year or two ago. There's a rivalry here.
For him to come out, and say this, he said this on video, Zuckerberg.
Saying, that they would go to -- not just go to community notes. Not just get rid of their fact-checkers. But go to their community notes. As he said, similar to the way X does it.
He actually admitted that basically, we tried something. They tried something. Theirs is better. We're going with theirs.
It's like a tech bro, you know, federalism.
That's -- that's a good thing. And I think a tough admission for a guy like Mark Zuckerberg.
I mean, I -- I am with you, in that, I think they've run this so poorly.
And they have taken companies and content companies. And given them this impression.
That they could advertise to people. Gain followers, and then get their content distributed. And then pull the rug out from underneath them, years ago. And destroyed to any and dozens of websites.
And companies, because of it.
That being said, this does kind of seem like a good change. I don't know if it's just, Glenn, them kissing Trump's butt.
And realizing, if Trump comes in, he's going to be a different kind of president. And in a different environment. And they better change, or they will get hammered.
Or if it's a real change. But either way, I think it's a positive one.
GLENN: Well, you know me. I always look for the best in people. Honestly.
STU: You do.
GLENN: I am kind of a poor judge of character, because of that. Because I -- I see people for who I think they could be. Maybe. At times.
And I kind of look at it like, I think that's who they really are going to be. And they usually disappoint. Because people don't become the people they could be, most times. Instead, they settle for what they allow, or what they've allowed themselves to become. Because they don't have a true center of truth. They don't know who they are. And how they relate to all of eternal truths.
And so they get lost really easily. But when I sat with Zuckerberg, this is more in line with the Zuckerberg that I sat with.
However, you know, I -- can I was -- I think I was -- what did we decide, Stu?
Greatly conned with Zuckerberg.
STU: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, we went back and forth on it, I think.
GLENN: Yeah. We did.
STU: Because I do think there's a part of him, that would like to be clear of all of this.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: I think he has other, you know, large goals in his -- in his life, other than navigate every political thing that pops up.
GLENN: So I am so glad, you said that.
What are his big goals?
What does he really want to do? Do you know?
STU: I --
GLENN: What is he focusing on?
STU: Hmm. I mean, I -- he has gone through several faces, right.
The company started going towards the metaverse. That changed the company to meta.
A couple years ago.
GLENN: Uh-huh.
STU: That -- that was --
GLENN: That tells you everything you need to know.
Tells you everything to know.
Meta is all about virtual reality, correct.
So virtual reality.
Guess who has invested billions of dollars in VR?
The United States Army, Navy, and Air Force.
All going to virtual reality.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: Okay?
Meta has lost about $50 billion in its Reality Labs division and the Meta verse. So what -- so what? What's happening here?
I think what this is, partially. I mean, I want to give him the benefit of the doubt. To some free.
But I think partially, what this is about, is making sure that the government contracts don't stop with Meta.
Make sure, that they are able to get some of that money, from the United States, in the use of VR. Because that's where he really -- where his heart is.
That's what he really wants to do.
Now, they lost $50 billion in their reality labs. However, if you look at Facebook's revenue, they're subsidizing all of this stuff.
Facebook, the revenue was expected to go up to $100 billion in 2024.
Facebook's advertising revenue is now expected to grow over $127 billion by 2027. So that's the cash cow. But where his heart is, is VR.
And AR. He wants to make sure that he gets -- he's not off the government teat. Otherwise, his -- his real passion is gone.
I think that's what's happening.
Speculation, but I think that's what's happening.
STU: It's got to be part of it, right? It's got to be part of it.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
STU: I wonder and hope that it is more than that.
Because I had the same reaction to Elon Musk, when he started having this transition of real skepticism. I didn't buy it.
The guy has been the biggest climate activist in America. Why would we believe all of a sudden, he's coming around to these sorts of ideas?
It does seem now, that that's pretty legitimate from Elon Musk. Could it be legitimate from Zuckerberg?
Remember, he's done some of this stuff before the election.
He did signal this stuff.
He did testimony.
He outed some of the government intrusions, before the election happened. He called Trump a badass after the assassination attempt.
GLENN: Correct.
He said, that was his turning point. Was the assassination attempt.
He said, that's when he realized, oh, this guy is really a badass. This guy is actually -- you know, what he says he is. To some degree, at least. According to Mark Zuckerberg.
But there's something else that Mark Zuckerberg has done to Facebook, that is very important and interesting.
So guess who else is joining Meta now?
In another announcement, they've decided, that Meta is going to have three new members on its board of directors, one of which is Dana White. What do you think of that one, Stu?
STU: I mean, it's fascinating. It's a huge Trump ally.
Big Trump supporter. Spoke at the convention. On Trump's behalf.
Now, you know, Zuckerberg is into the sort of UFC stuff.
Right? That's part of his world.
But, I mean, it's -- think of the change. Think of the people being kicked off Facebook. Think of where we were, not that long ago. With Facebook.
GLENN: Four years ago. We were just -- we knew we were walking into a bloodbath. We're walking into a buzz saw.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: And now look at what we're walking into.
STU: Glenn, I was thinking back into the book, the history of the future. By Blake Harris.
We had him on a bunch of times. It was a story of Palmer Lucky. The guy who invented the Oculus Rift and became Meta Quest. He developed that device in his trailer.
And he eventually got bought out by Zuckerberg, for, you know, a billion dollars. Eventually was fired because he gave $10,000 to a group that was putting up an anti-Hillary Clinton billboard.
GLENN: Right. That's right.
STU: They -- they tried to destroy this guy, completely.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: Now, in the interim, built a 14 billion-dollar other separate company.
GLENN: Yeah. So he's --
(laughter)
STU: He -- you know, Palmer Lucky.
GLENN: I wonder if we can even get him on the phone now.
Because we had him on the show when he was destroyed.
STU: Yeah. We had the offer --
GLENN: Oh, you're right. Yeah, that's right.
STU: But the story was like, painted a picture of Zuckerberg, of like this guy. You know, it struck me like he was some Huffington Post blogger, running Facebook and Instagram.
This person, who we have seen here in the last 24 hours and over the past few months, seems like a totally different guy.
Whether that's just self-preservation or it's real, it's better.
GLENN: Self-preservation. I think.