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Mark Zuckerberg and Meta's Dangerous Decision to End Fact Checking | Pivot

January 10, 2025 / 10:38

This episode discusses Mark Zuckerberg's recent decision to end Meta's fact-checking program, the implications for hate speech moderation, and the shift of Meta's content moderation team to Texas. Key topics include the potential impact on democracy, social media's role in news dissemination, and the consequences of reduced content moderation.

Scott's appearance on Morning Joe is highlighted, where he expressed concerns about the erosion of democratic values due to social media's influence. He criticized Zuckerberg's motivations, suggesting that the changes are self-serving and detrimental to public discourse.

The conversation also touches on the historical context of misinformation and violence linked to social media, referencing events in Myanmar and the Pizzagate conspiracy. Scott emphasizes the need for responsible moderation and the dangers of unchecked narratives.

Criticism is directed at Zuckerberg's decisions, including the appointment of controversial figures to Meta's board, and the potential consequences for users and society. The discussion underscores the tension between business interests and ethical responsibilities in social media.

Overall, the episode raises significant questions about the future of content moderation and the role of social media in shaping public opinion and political discourse.

TL;DR

Mark Zuckerberg's decision to end Meta's fact-checking raises concerns about hate speech and democracy, as discussed by Scott on Morning Joe.

Video

00:00:00
let's get to our first big story as one
00:00:02
headline put it this week Mark
00:00:03
Zuckerberg and meta are finding new ways
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to kiss Trump's ass I would move around
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to the front actually in that one that
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followed Zuckerberg announcing on
00:00:11
Tuesday that meta is ending its
00:00:13
factchecking program essentially meta's
00:00:15
platforms will instead use Community
00:00:17
note system similar to X that will
00:00:19
apparently quote reduce censorship rules
00:00:22
on hate speech are being loosened if you
00:00:24
look at what they've done it's an
00:00:25
astonishing thing the things they've
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taken out and meta's content moderation
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team will be moved from California in
00:00:30
Texas where there is less concern about
00:00:32
bias cuz Texas people have no bias I've
00:00:34
never seen it ever Texas people won't
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shut up about Texas to start with anyway
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uh Zuckerberg shared a video explained
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his decision unfortunately I have to
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listen to him so let's listen the recent
00:00:45
elections also feel like a cultural
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Tipping Point towards once again
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prioritizing speech so we're going to
00:00:50
get back to our roots and focus on
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reducing mistakes simplifying our
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policies and restoring free expression
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on our platforms I'm going to let you
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stop start Scott because you had you
00:01:01
went on Morning Joe and had quite a
00:01:03
moment I did the same thing over on the
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BB on the be in London but go ahead tell
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me your thoughts we're moving to a the
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the keys to a thriving democracy are
00:01:14
three-fold you have to have strong
00:01:17
institutions that people respect you
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have to have shared stories that we're
00:01:22
the good guys and we want World War II
00:01:24
for the right reasons and Americans
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hearts are in the right place and
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believe in the founding fathers and the
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rights of people
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and and you also have to have kind of a
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lot of Social Capital within smaller
00:01:35
networks whether it's your church or
00:01:36
your neighbors or maybe you served you
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know how you feel about people who also
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served in the Marines or whatever it
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might be and slowly but surely social
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media is eroding all of those things and
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this is just another example of how
00:01:50
those three things will continue to come
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down um and be eroded you have somewhere
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between a half and two-thirds of
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Americans depending on their age now get
00:01:58
their news from social media
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and today when I was on Morning Joe I
00:02:03
called Trump an insurrectionist and a
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rapist M had to stop the show and say
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that Trump was found liable for sexual
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abuse now imagine in contrast what
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you're going to be able to say about
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anything Health elections what you
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should
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do uh when a fire breaks out in the
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Pacific Palisades on on meta I mean we
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are all going into we are all separating
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further and further and to think that
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this doesn't have not only implications
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around candidates or politics but
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violence look what happen in 2017
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Myanmar everything there was violence
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against the rohinga in myanamar in a
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year later there were rumors circulated
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on WhatsApp unfettered and people were
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being pulled out of cars in small towns
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in India and hanged because of rumors
00:02:54
around uh kidnappings I mean this
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remember pizz gate that's started on
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social media so four years ago he called
00:03:05
it uh moderation now they call it
00:03:08
censorship and I got to give it to the
00:03:11
guy I do think he's a brilliant
00:03:12
businessman he said okay this guy has
00:03:15
threatened to put me in jail I'm going
00:03:17
to turn chicken [ __ ] and turn it into
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chicken salad and come up with a way to
00:03:21
please him and potentially R reduce up
00:03:23
to5 Billion of costs in the Safety and
00:03:26
Security team the move to Texas is
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actually not political it's a means of
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quiet firing 30 to 60% of the staff cuz
00:03:34
they won't move and if you take say he
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saves three or four of that5 billion it
00:03:39
trades at a p of 30 30 Time 4 120
00:03:42
billion owns 50 he just made another $18
00:03:44
billion while managing to kiss Mark
00:03:47
Zuckerberg's ass and no Donald Trump's
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I'm sorry Excuse me while while managing
00:03:52
to kiss even more no one wants to kiss
00:03:54
Mark Zucker br's ass and just a larger
00:03:56
Point here and the point I made on Joe
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Scarboro is broken my indignant self
00:04:01
preachy self my question is the
00:04:04
following where are the [ __ ]
00:04:07
men where are the
00:04:09
men that recognize okay I've made tens
00:04:12
of billions of dollars here I lead a
00:04:14
remarkable life uh my kids have
00:04:16
incredible opportunity I have a broader
00:04:18
selection set of mates than I deserve
00:04:20
people laugh at my jokes I'm going to I
00:04:22
get to dress like this I'm going to live
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five or 10 years longer than most people
00:04:25
I get to do remarkable things because of
00:04:28
this operating system
00:04:30
called America and the blessings of
00:04:32
America and yet I have abs [ __ ]
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lutely no Fidelity to those
00:04:36
values what is the point of having this
00:04:39
much money and this much power if you
00:04:42
have to bend the knee to a kleptocrat
00:04:44
but it's more than that let me just say
00:04:46
let me do my little rant now because
00:04:47
it's more than just bending the knee of
00:04:48
course he's doing his self-interest and
00:04:50
his business interest which is always
00:04:51
Mark someone was like I think it was on
00:04:53
Pi Morgan he's like are you surprised
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I'm like no no this is what he's like
00:04:57
this is what I've told you he's like for
00:04:59
for know I wrote a piece in the New York
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Times where I was like this guy is the
00:05:03
most dangerous person on the planet like
00:05:07
he is he has Amplified and weaponized
00:05:09
everything and then he doesn't want to
00:05:11
take responsibility let me tell you I've
00:05:13
talked to a lot of people inside uh
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Facebook and meta they are sick to their
00:05:17
stomach Mark just so you know I know
00:05:19
Joel Kaplan is is kissing your ass to
00:05:22
get the job that he got but let let me
00:05:24
just be clear so many people called me
00:05:26
to this past week the the first person
00:05:29
who was this first PR person was like we
00:05:31
got to get off threads now like I've had
00:05:34
so many calls sick to their stomach
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seems to to do it and they should be
00:05:38
sick to their stomach because you are a
00:05:40
sad and Shameless Weather Vein in four
00:05:43
more years if the Democrats take over
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you're going to shift again because
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that's what you do you have no values
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whatsoever and one of I thought will
00:05:50
Ramos did a great piece in the
00:05:52
Washington Post well places where he
00:05:54
cite he goes Mark Zucker cited a
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cultural Tipping Point to justify
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dumping fact checks and relax ing hate
00:06:00
speech rules um meta ending fact checks
00:06:02
in the US made headlines but the real
00:06:04
ball game here is a broader repudiation
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of the idea that a company is
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responsible for bad stuff on its
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platform as Zuckerberg puts it bad stuff
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Mark you don't bad stuff what he thinks
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he's going to like like stub a toe these
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PE people you put people in danger um
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the company never really wanted that
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responsibility and Trump's election
00:06:22
allows them to shrug it off and and and
00:06:25
they never wanted to that's the thing is
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first of all these fact checking systems
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do make mistakes so does community notes
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so does AI but you have to employ if you
00:06:36
want to build your [ __ ] social media
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Network you need to have all of them at
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work and to impune these fact checkers
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by the way they have conservative fact
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Checkers they're not all libtards Mark
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sorry they're from conservative
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Publications if you want to do that you
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need fact Checkers that make mistakes
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and then you correct them you need um
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you need AI you need Community noes to
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wholly Embrace what they're doing at
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Twitter on top of it with X is repulsive
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Mark he hates you just so you know they
00:07:06
laugh at you behind your back in front
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of your back they laugh at you and and
00:07:10
and the fact that he cannot he switches
00:07:13
his tune I've had conversations where he
00:07:15
says Cara AI was going to do this
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someday Cara Community is going to do
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this Cara moderation is going to do this
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I don't believe a word coming out of
00:07:23
your mouth anymore honestly you're you
00:07:26
say Mundus [ __ ] all the time Scott and I
00:07:28
got to tell you it's exactly what's
00:07:30
happening here now secondly when he put
00:07:33
UFC um CEO and Trump crony Dana White on
00:07:36
the board that also upset people inside
00:07:39
the company and they tamped down the
00:07:41
criticism on internal Facebook boards
00:07:44
among employees because this guy was was
00:07:47
SE was caught on a videot type hitting
00:07:50
his wife um his wife hit him but I spent
00:07:53
years years T talking to my sons about
00:07:56
never hitting a woman no matter what if
00:07:58
she hits you I don't care right this
00:08:02
these are the people he's bringing onto
00:08:04
the board of of of meta right now
00:08:06
because he happens to like doing you
00:08:09
know MMA and by the way Mark the reason
00:08:11
all those MMA fighters hang with you is
00:08:12
because you're rich they don't think
00:08:14
you're that good they it's great to hang
00:08:16
out with a rich person and I'm glad
00:08:18
you're doing it I'm hoping you're having
00:08:19
fun but this the whole thing couldn't
00:08:22
get worse except for what Amazon did
00:08:25
about giving melan a $40 million no that
00:08:27
wasn't even as bad and these when these
00:08:29
guard rails are removed it is going to
00:08:31
be disastrous for for people Scott take
00:08:34
over on your Indy please well I just I I
00:08:37
feel a need to just fact Tech myself and
00:08:39
and disclose that on the
00:08:41
international um markets around meta I
00:08:43
do believe they're going to maintain
00:08:45
some fact checking and Safety and
00:08:46
Security because I do recognize that
00:08:48
there's real danger overseas for people
00:08:53
the the the I mean this has so many
00:08:55
negative ramifications one of which
00:08:57
being that news
00:09:00
when they say smart mtic and Dominion
00:09:03
have been weaponized in an election and
00:09:04
they knew that was not true and decided
00:09:07
to put it out anyways or promote it
00:09:09
because they knew it would tickle the
00:09:10
censors of their viewers and then
00:09:12
Dominion says you have defamed us
00:09:14
because this has hurt our business and
00:09:16
you knew you were lying and the courts
00:09:17
say yes this is qualifies as defamation
00:09:20
you have to pay them $774
00:09:23
million and and then iger's worried
00:09:26
about a suit from the president
00:09:27
retribution from the president and ABC
00:09:29
has to pay the companies that are now
00:09:32
having to spend a ton of money on
00:09:33
moderation and are chilled and scared
00:09:36
and have to stop an interview with me
00:09:38
because I call someone a rapist instead
00:09:40
of a sexual
00:09:41
abuser folks be careful slow your role
00:09:46
everyone from News Corp from The Wall
00:09:49
Street Journal to the BBC to Wikipedia
00:09:52
to The Washington Post they're all
00:09:55
shrinking and going away and there's
00:09:58
been all these articles recently about
00:09:59
some anchors including anchors we know
00:10:01
and love having to take pay cuts so
00:10:04
congratulations your Lam stream media is
00:10:07
going extinct and you're going to have
00:10:10
to get all of your news from social
00:10:12
media which is a [ __ ] food fight
00:10:14
around which ever algorithm grabs the
00:10:16
most novel I.E conspiracy I.E false
00:10:20
narrative to punch out there I mean
00:10:24
these traditional media Outlets do play
00:10:27
an important role and they are having
00:10:29
their wind pipes are being crushed right
00:10:32
now

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most controversial
  • 60
    Most shocking
  • 60
    Most polarizing
  • 60
    Most influential

Episode Highlights

  • Meta's Content Moderation Changes
    Meta is ending its fact-checking program and loosening rules on hate speech, raising concerns about misinformation.
    “This is just another example of how social media is eroding democracy.”
    @ 01m 45s
    January 10, 2025
  • The Cultural Tipping Point
    Zuckerberg cites a cultural tipping point to justify relaxing hate speech rules, sparking debate about responsibility.
    “Mark Zuckerberg is a sad and shameless weather vane.”
    @ 05m 40s
    January 10, 2025

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Zuckerberg's Announcement00:11
  • Loosening Hate Speech Rules00:19
  • Cultural Tipping Point00:47
  • Erosion of Democracy01:45
  • Meta's Staff Changes03:27

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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