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Mark Zuckerberg wants you to believe Meta is "returning to its roots" with today's announcement about "free expression." What he's actually doing is showing us his true colors.
This morning, Meta announced it's killing its fact-checking program, loosening content moderation, and moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas (because, apparently, neutral content moderation has a zip code now). The timing couldn't be more transparent: Trump wins the election, and suddenly Meta discovers a burning passion for "free speech."
Let's look at how they rolled this out: Joel Kaplan, a former George W. Bush adviser freshly promoted to Chief Global Affairs Officer, went straight to Fox & Friends to make the announcement. Not CNN, not MSNBC, not even a tech publication. Fox News. The message wasn't subtle: Meta is ready to be a team player in Trump's America.
"We've got a new administration and a new president coming in who are big defenders of free expression, and that makes a difference," Kaplan told Fox News, apparently hoping we'd all forgotten that Trump has repeatedly threatened to sue news organizations and nominated an FBI director who wants to target critical media outlets.
But Meta's hypocrisy runs deeper than just convenient timing. While they're publicly championing "free expression," they're actively suppressing it within their own walls. As 404 Media reported this morning, Meta is deleting internal employee criticism of their new board member Dana White—you know, the UFC president who was caught on video slapping his wife in a nightclub. Apparently, "free expression" doesn't extend to pointing out inconvenient facts about company leadership.
And let's talk about that "commitment to free expression." Just yesterday, at revealed that Meta had been blocking teenagers from searching LGBTQ-related content for months, hiding it under "sensitive content" restrictions while letting creepy right-wing "tradwife" content flourish. Only after getting caught did they claim it was an "error." Funny how these "errors" keep happening to the same communities, isn't it?
This isn't about Meta being scared of Trump. It's about Zuckerberg recognizing an opportunity. He's not capitulating to pressure; he's aligning himself with power. There's a difference. The company that claimed it needed to protect teens from LGBTQ content is now suddenly concerned about having too many content restrictions. What changed? The political winds.
Make no mistake: this is a calculated business decision. Meta is fighting antitrust cases, hoping for government help against TikTok, seeking regulatory approval for various AI initiatives, and looking to curry favor with an administration that rewards loyalty.
The cynicism here is staggering. Meta isn't "returning to its roots"—it's revealing them. They're not championing free expression; they're showing us exactly what kind of company they've always been: one that will embrace whatever ideology serves its bottom line.
But hey, at least we can all rest easy knowing that Meta's trust and safety teams will be working from Texas now. Because nothing says "we believe in free expression" quite like moving your content moderators to a different state to prove you're not too "woke."
And there you have it. A tech company worth hundreds of billions of dollars, led by a man who once promised to "bring the world closer together," is now openly choosing to align itself with authoritarianism. Not because they have to, but because they want to. The most disturbing part isn't that Zuckerberg is making this choice—it's that he clearly thinks we're all too stupid to see exactly what he's doing.
And while you’re here…
I want to use this space to promote my friend Ana Marie Cox’s writing workshop.
I've known Ana for years and she's a wonderful, talented person and writer. For a few years now, she's been teaching a workshop for people who want to write about their recovery. Her next session starts on January 21st, and if you're at all interested in diving into your own recovery story, I know she gears the class to be as friendly as possible to all kinds of people—you don't need any experience writing or be in some kind of formal recovery. Here's what she sent me about it:
It's the "Third Story Workshop," focused on helping people to own their recovery journey
I taught writing workshops at treatment centers for years before bringing this out to the world, since everyone is recovering from something
In addition to recovery from addiction, people have taken it to deal with grief, job loss, relationships ending and medical trauma.
11 weeks at 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT, starts 1/21 and ends 4/8
$1200 if you sign up in the next two weeks, $1500 after that... but no one will be turned away for lack of funds. I have several scholarship slots. People can contact me via the website anamariecox.com/contact
I also interviewed her about the newsletter last year, if you want to check that out:
