Staff ReportsZuckerberg appears to be having a classic case of FOMO—fear of missing out—especially when it comes to the attention that Elon Musk has snatched up ever since the tech titan took the plunge into the political arena with his recent support of Donald Trump. The founder of Facebook is part of an elite club of wealthy tech moguls, but unlike Musk, who is riding high on his political highs, Zuckerberg seems to be stuck in the background, often overshadowed by his rival’s triumphant media transformations.
The notion that Zuckerberg might be feeling a twinge of envy for Musk’s commanding presence in today’s political discussions isn’t outlandish. Many pundits have suggested that Zuckerberg had his own political aspirations, hoping to curry favor with the Biden administration back in 2021. Rather than finding himself among the influential, it seems he ended up as little more than the administration’s doting errand boy. While Musk capitalizes on his robust political ties, Zuckerberg’s attempts to cozy up to the power brokers of the Democratic Party have evidently yielded nothing more than a fancy leash.
🚨 Update from @finkd: @Meta is embracing free speech principles, cutting back fact-checkers and reducing filters. He won’t admit it was intentional—he calls it “mistakes”. 🤷🏻♂️ They’re shifting to a “community notes” approach. 👍🏼We’ll see if it makes a difference. #FreeSpeech pic.twitter.com/3QSnXrbyj6
— Josue Sierra (@jmsierra) January 7, 2025
But the puckish underdog saga doesn’t stop there. It coincidentally unfolds amid groundbreaking announcements concerning civil liberties that Zuckerberg claims to treasure—those pesky little freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution. Just a day after Children’s Health Defense called upon the Supreme Court to reconsider a contentious Ninth Circuit ruling regarding Facebook’s nagging habit of censoring information, Zuckerberg suddenly found the courage (or perhaps the desperation) to announce the closure of Meta’s third-party “fact-checking” program. How quaint, really.
The timing is nothing short of dramatic. After being called to the carpet for the company’s shady censorship practices, Zuckerberg drops this quasi-revelation about returning to “roots” of free expression on his platforms, still managing to dodge the real conversation. Children’s Health Defense, having suffered significant ramifications due to Meta’s heavy-handed tactics, hasn’t exactly taken this new development lying down. Their CEO seems to think Zuckerberg’s mini-revolution might have more to do with fear of future anti-censorship moves from the next administration than a genuine desire to restore freedom of speech.
Many in the conservative corner see this as an elaborate game of distraction. The underlying concern is that Meta’s cozy collaboration with the Biden administration to suppress information was less about moderation and more about broadening the ranks of censorship in partnership with the government. It’s as if Zuckerberg was acting as a willing accomplice in this grand scheme to muzzle opposing viewpoints. Imagine that—the man, once hailed for building a platform of connection, now scrambling to align himself with the very ideals he once sought to suppress. How the tables have turned.
