Zuckerberg tar rygg på Musk, lierar sig med Trump och försämrar Meta steg för steg.
Politiker, individer och grupperingar som gynnas av näthat och extremism har vind i seglen. Vissa sprider konspirationsteorier och desinformation för personlig vinning, andra vill bara se världen brinna. Alla är de nyttiga idioter för påverkansoperationer från främmande makt. Här spelar sociala medier och deras ägare en stor roll, inte minst när de aktivt bidrar till förfallet.
Mark Zuckerbergs MAGA-resa har gått fort, så som det brukar bli när tech-bros får smak för fascism. Hans nya riktning för Meta, bland annat uppluckrade regler för moderering och slopat program för faktagranskning av tredje part, har naturligtvis inget med ökad yttrandefrihet att göra. Dock brukar “yttrandefrihet” vara standardförklaringen när reaktionära försöker dölja sina auktoritära böjelser.
Ska man tro kulturkrigare av idag, är ett vilda västern i sociala medier höjden av frihet. De som gillar vad Musk gjort med X lär därför bli nöjda med Zuckerbergs planer för Facebook och Instagram. Detta oavsett försämringar som får folk att lämna för konkurrenter som Bluesky och Pixelfed. I kriget mot “woke” tycks användarvänlighet och personlig integritet vara sekundärt.
Contrary to Mark Zuckerberg’s claims, content moderation has never been a tool to repress free speech; it is a principle that the platforms themselves developed to promote dialogue and protect truth for users.
– Nora Benavidez, Free Press Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights
27/3 2025:
22/2 2025:
21/2 2025:
Social media giants Meta and X approved ads targeting users in Germany with violent anti-Muslim and anti-Jew hate speech in the run-up to the country’s federal elections, according to new research from Eko, a corporate responsibility nonprofit campaign group.
Meta, X approved ads containing violent anti-Muslim, antisemitic hate speech ahead of German election, study finds (TechCrunch)
20/1 2025:
19/1 2025:
18/1 2025:
Zuckerberg and like-minded tech moguls have direct material interests in cultivating Trump’s good favor by performing his brand of manhood. Meta, for instance, wants to undermine its competitors, suppress regulation and free itself from the threat of antitrust enforcement.
Mark Zuckerberg Has a Funny Idea of What It Is to Be a Man (New York Times)
17/1 2025:
[Zuckerberg’s] use of the word censorship was a big rhetorical win for Republicans and conservatives. You know, in previous years, the company would have used the industry's word, which is content moderation, right? They would not have framed those programs that they had worked on for years as a form of censorship.
16/1 2025:
These man-children feel like they're ‘rebelling,’ but real rebellion is the oppressed rising against the more powerful. These are the richest, most privileged people in society bragging about how much they enjoy bullying people with lower social status.
Biden likened the current crop of tech moguls to the ‘robber barons’ of the 19th century, men like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Recalling President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address warning about the military-industrial complex, Biden decried a ‘tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country.’
Biden warns of the rise of a new American ‘oligarchy’ (Washington Post)
15/1 2025:
NBC News reviewed hundreds of posts and comments across various social media platforms that said users would delete their Meta accounts, stop posting or boycott the company in response to the changes. The exodus is reminiscent of when X (formerly Twitter) users left the platform in large numbers after the 2024 election.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is cohosting a reception with billionaire Republican donors next week for Donald Trump’s inauguration, the latest sign of the Facebook founder’s embrace of the president-elect.
14/1 2025:
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, according to an official involved with the planning of the event.
They will have a prominent spot at the ceremony, seated together on the platform with other notable guests including Trump’s Cabinet nominees and elected officials.
[D]espite Zuckerberg’s long-running efforts to spin a more idyllic origin myth, his company’s roots have little to do with ‘protecting speech.’ Meta’s roots lie in mass surveillance, and its success depends on extracting vast troves of our personal data from across the internet.
Mark Zuckerberg and the Internet for Billionaires (Tech Policy)
Unlike Meta’s site, Pixelfed is ad-free, and offers users a charter that respects their ‘fundamental rights’ to ‘participate in online spaces that respect their privacy, dignity, and well-being’. The charter promises limited but consensual data collection, transparent algorithms, and a surveillance-free experience with zero web tracking.
Det är inte längre prioriterat att skydda utsatta grupper. Det viktiga är numera att skydda den stora massans rätt att fritt trakassera dem.
13/1 2025:
Ex-workers say CEO declaring relocation of moderation and safety teams from California just a play for Trump approval
Meta moderators were already in Texas before Zuckerberg announced move, say ex-workers (The Guardian)
12/1 2025:
11/11 2025:
The U.S. government under incoming President Donald Trump should intervene to stop the EU from fining American tech companies for breaching antitrust rules and committing other violations, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said late Friday.
10/1 2025:
Meta deleted nonbinary and trans themes for its Messenger app this week, around the same time that the company announced it would change its rules to allow users to declare that LGBTQ+ people are ‘mentally ill,’ 404 Media has learned.
Following a week in which Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta was getting rid of factchecking, as of Friday the company is also terminating its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, effective immediately.
9/1 2025:
You may be wondering how to delete your Facebook account now that fact-checking is no longer considered important, and Meta’s changing its definition of what constitutes Hateful Conduct.
How to delete your Facebook account (The Verge)
8/2025:
Experts warn that Meta’s decision to end its third-party fact-checking program could allow disinformation and hate to fester online and permeate the real world.
7/1 2025:
While Zuckerberg characterized the platform giant’s new approach as a defense of free speech, its real intentions are twofold: Ditch the technology company’s responsibility to protect its many users, and align the company more closely with an incoming president who’s a known enemy of accountability.
Meta's Abandonment of Content Moderation and Fact Checking Points to a Chilling New Era of Big Tech Capitulation (Free Press)
Repeating talking points long used by President-elect Donald Trump and his allies, in a video Zuckerberg said [Meta's] content moderation approach resulted too often in ‘censorship’.
