The political evolution of Mark Zuckerberg, apologies at the end of apologies

In November 2016, when Facebook was singled out for the torrent of fake news (fake news) and conspiracy theories swirling around Donald Trump’s first election, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of the social network, wrote an apology post.

In his message, Mr. Zuckerberg announced a series of measures he planned to take to combat false and misleading information on Facebook, including working with fact-checkers.

“The main thing is that we take misinformation seriously,” he wrote in a personal message on Facebook. “There are many respected fact-checking organizations,” he added, “and while we have contacted some of them, we intend to learn from many others.”

Eight years later, Mark Zuckerberg no longer apologizes. On Tuesday, he announced that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, was ending its fact-checking program and returning to its roots around free speech. The fact-checking system had led to “too much censorship,” he said.

This is the latest step in a transformation by Mr. Zuckerberg. In recent years, the CEO, now 40, has moved away from his “mea culpa” approach to issues on his social platforms.

Tired of the incessant criticism to which his company has sometimes been subjected, he told executives close to him that he wanted to return to his initial conception of freedom of expression, which involves lighter moderation of content.

Mr. Zuckerberg has reshaped Meta as it has evolved. The transparency tool CrowdTangle, which allowed researchers, academics and journalists to monitor conspiracy theories and misinformation on Facebook, is gone. The company’s election integrity team, once billed as a group of experts focused solely on voting issues, has been folded into a general integrity team.

Change of direction

Instead, Mr. Zuckerberg encouraged Meta’s technological efforts, including its investments in the immersive world of the “metaverse” and its interest in artificial intelligence.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s change was visible on his social networks. Photos of him, uncomfortably dressed in a suit and tie and testifying before Congress, were replaced by videos showing him with longer hair and gold chains, engaging in extreme sports and sometimes hunting his own food. On Facebook, the long legal messages on Meta’s commitment to democracy no longer appear. Instead, he posted quips on Threads in response to famous athletes and videos showing off the company’s latest AI initiatives.

“It shows that Mark Zuckerberg feels that society is more accepting of the libertarian and right-wing views that he has always had,” said Katie Harbath, CEO of Anchor Change, a technology consulting firm, which previously worked for Facebook.

Mr. Zuckerberg has long been a pragmatist who goes with the political winds. He has flip-flopped on how much political content to show to Facebook and Instagram users, previously saying social media should be about fun, relatable content from family and friends, then, on Tuesday, he said Meta would show more personalized political content.

Mr. Zuckerberg told those close to him that he felt comfortable with his company’s new direction. He views his latest moves as a return to his original thinking about freedom of speech and expression, with Meta limiting its surveillance and control of content, said two Meta executives who spoke with Mr. Zuckerberg last week.

Mr. Zuckerberg has never been comfortable with the involvement of outside fact-checkers, academics or researchers in his company, one of the executives said. He now believes that many of the actions taken after the 2016 election were a mistake, both executives said.

“The fact checkers have just been too politically partisan and have destroyed more trust than they have created,” Mr. Zuckerberg said in a video Tuesday about ending the fact-checking program, echoing to statements made by prominent Republicans over the years.

Meta declined to comment.

Growth and pressure

Those who have known Mr. Zuckerberg for decades describe him as a natural libertarian, who loved reading books touting free speech and the free market system after dropping out of Harvard to start Facebook in 2004. His company’s growth comes with pressure to become more responsive to complaints from world leaders and civil society groups that it is not doing enough to moderate content on its platform.

Crises, including a genocide in Burma, during which Facebook was accused of allowing the spread of hate speech against the Rohingya Muslim people, have forced Mr. Zuckerberg to expand his moderation teams and define rules relating to freedom of expression on its social networks.

People close to him, including Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former chief operating officer, encouraged him to become more involved in politics.

After the 2016 election, Mr. Zuckerberg embarked on a public campaign to clear his name and buy back his company. He held regular meetings with civic leaders and invited politicians to tour his company’s headquarters, deployed transparency tools such as CrowdTangle, and brought in fact-checkers.

In 2021, when the January 6 riot broke out at the Capitol after the presidential election, Meta was again held responsible for hosting speeches that fomented violence. Two weeks later, Mark Zuckerberg told investors that the company was “considering taking steps” to reduce political content on Facebook.

“We will come out stronger”

Since then, its evolution has been constant. The executives who pushed Mr. Zuckerberg to get directly involved in politics, including Mr.^me Sandberg, have left the company. Those close to him now praise him for focusing on his own interests, including extreme sports and rap for his wife, as well as promoting his company’s artificial intelligence initiatives.

In a podcast interview in San Francisco that Mr. Zuckerberg recorded live in front of an audience of 6,000 people in September, he spoke for nearly 90 minutes about his love of technology. He said he should have rejected accusations that his company was responsible for society’s ills.

“I think the political miscalculation was a 20-year mistake,” he said. He added that it might take him another decade to get his company’s brand back to where he wants it to be.

“We will get through this and we will come out stronger,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

This article was originally published in the New York Times.

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