In a recent high-profile podcast from Joe Rogan, Meta* co-founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed interesting details about content moderation on his platforms. According to the entrepreneur, the American government has actually introduced censorship.
As Mark Zuckerberg explained during his speech, the original plan was to simply create a fact-checking system. However, since 2016, after the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump, the Democratic Party decided to get serious about cleaning up the platforms:
- Due to suspicions of a disinformation campaign, Facebook had to implement strict moderation of political content.
- At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, censorship experienced a real peak: it was impossible to talk about the dangers of vaccines or even use memes on the subject. For example, the authorities personally contacted the administration to remove the meme featuring the doubting hero Leonardo DiCaprio from Inception.
- The initial refusal to follow these measures led to Meta being effectively blamed for the deaths due to ‘spreading disinformation’.
- US intelligence agencies can actually read users’ WhatsApp messages. The company itself will not see its contents unless it is photographed or otherwise transmitted. Moreover, the Signal messenger can also be hacked due to its open source code.
- The media mogul also commented on the arrest of Telegram owner Pavel Durov in France, which took place in the summer of 2024. Mark Zuckerberg said that he is concerned about this fact; the precedent could lead to governments putting physical pressure on companies.
He is now determined to end censorship on his platforms. In his recent statement, the entrepreneur said that he plans to abandon strict moderation and introduce a system of user annotations, similar to X (Twitter).
Previously, the Meta owner released his very first cover, choosing Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz’s track Get Low as his musical debut.
*Recognised as an extremist organization in the Russian Federation
☄️ A game is released on Steam where every NPC is an AI that you can talk to using just a microphone
Source: VG Times
Christina Moncayo is a contributing writer for “Social Bites”. Her focus is on the gaming industry and she provides in-depth coverage of the latest news and trends in the world of gaming.