We Must Hold Mark Zuckerberg Accountable for Meta’s Censorship

No, Mark Zuckerberg can’t just appear on Joe Rogan’s podcast and act like he’s a champion of free speech as if he had no control over the censorship at Facebook that influenced the 2020 election and likely jeopardized lives during the pandemic.

His attempt at a rebranding won’t conceal Zuck’s misdeeds, ranging from suppressing The Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the 2020 election, to banning a sitting president, Donald Trump, and silencing dissent regarding COVID-19.

No matter how many trips he makes to the gym, trying to shed his image of a “tech nerd,” the billionaire tech mogul will forever remain a spineless figure whose monopoly should be dismantled. No individual should possess such unprecedented authority to censor political discourse, especially not a socially awkward tech entrepreneur.

The founder of Facebook, whose Meta conglomerate encompasses Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, complained to Rogan on Friday that “people from the Biden administration would call up our team and just scream and curse at them,” demanding they remove posts. Now he chooses to share this.

Fair-weather FB friend

Yet, why did he remain silent when the pivotal case Missouri v. Biden (now Murthy v. Missouri) was in front of the Supreme Court? His testimony could have profoundly impacted the case, demonstrating that the Biden administration illegally undermined the First Amendment.

It was only when House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan started issuing subpoenas that Zuck admitted Facebook’s censorship of The Post was triggered by a specific FBI warning “about a potential Russian disinformation operation regarding the Biden family and Burisma leading up to the 2020 election.”

Previously, he told Rogan in August 2022 that he didn’t “specifically remember” the FBI warning but stated it “essentially fit the pattern” of the Post story.

His public relations team explicitly denied any connection to Hunter Biden when I inquired.

So, until Zuckerberg removes all the Democrat operatives and CIA/FBI infiltrators from his organization and makes his operations transparent like Elon Musk did with Twitter, why would anyone trust him?

And what about the $450 million in “Zuckerbucks” he donated for “election integrity” in 2020 that primarily assisted Democrats? In addition to censoring our narratives, that demonstrates Zuckerberg’s interference with the 2020 election and probably altered history.

Merely hiring a few Trump supporters and visiting Mar-a-Lago to seek approval won’t suffice.

Zuckerberg’s brazen attempts to ingratiate himself with Trump’s inner circle, detailed by Axios over the weekend, featured a seven-step strategy to win over the president-elect, executed through “a methodical striptease” over nine days:

Appoint a Trump ally to your board, with UFC CEO Dana White; appoint a notable Republican as your chief global affairs officer, former Bush operative Joel Kaplan; align your philosophy with Trump’s on free speech by ending the biased “fact-checking” program in favor of an X-style community notes approach; announce your philosophical shift on “Fox & Friends,” ensuring Trump is watching; take a firm public stance on a popular MAGA issue — putting an end to DEI; reinforce that position with a Kaplan interview on “Fox News Digital”; finally, go on Joe Rogan’s podcast and blame the Biden administration for everything.

The one element missing is Zuck’s $1 million donation to the president-elect’s inaugural fund.

Could he be any more transparent? Actually, yes, it appears.

To complete his sycophantic routine, on the same day his soft-peddled Rogan interview aired, Zuck flew to Palm Beach in a suit and a—wait for it—red tie, parked his private jet next to Trump’s, and grovelled at Mar-a-Lago for the second time since the election. Ugh.

We shouldn’t expect nuance or sophistication from a tech geek.

However, as MAGA commentator Steve Bannon pointed out on Sunday, the nation is fed up with “nerd rule.”

“Zuckerberg is the epitome of the problem. He owned the largest platform and actively worked against the truth. Recall his actions regarding the laptop and anything from the pandemic… He has consistently been wrong on everything,” Bannon stated. “He’s immature and lacks the discernment to wield such power.”

Danger of ‘nerd rule’

Zuckerberg projects a facade of being pro-free speech, yet submits to the first sign of pressure from Democrats who blamed Facebook for the successes of Brexit and Trump in 2016. He complied by instituting biased fact-checking processes and suppressing conservative voices under the pretext of “misinformation.”

Bannon experienced a permanent ban from Facebook in November 2020 under the claim that he had used the common phrase “heads on pikes” to advocate for making an example of COVID czar Tony Fauci.

Trump was also “indefinitely suspended” just after the Capitol riot. Zuckerberg’s “global affairs” head, Nick Clegg, a pro-EU, anti-Brexit, anti-populist former British politician, stated it was a “very well-justified decision” to ban a sitting president, insisting, “You can’t incite violence on our platform.”

Trump’s video was not a call to violence; he urged the rioters to “go home in peace.”

However, back then, Zuckerberg was catering to a different president, aligning with Biden’s “equity” agenda and enhancing his progressive corporate policies through the appointment of an Obama alum as Facebook’s new “vice president of civil rights” and by establishing a global “oversight board” filled with human-rights activists who would endorse its clampdown on conservatives.

“President Biden has already issued several executive orders on issues we care about deeply as a company,” Zuckerberg can be heard saying in a leaked recording from a Facebook staff meeting in 2021. “Issues such as immigration, preserving DACA, revoking travel restrictions from Muslim-majority nations, as well as on climate issues and advancing racial justice and equity.”

There is nothing to prevent this servile flatterer from reverting to his previous, more MAGA-hostile policies as soon as it’s politically expedient.

“I don’t care how much he flatters Donald Trump now as a sycophant. He will pivot and pivot hard the moment it serves his interests. Zuckerberg places our republic in a perilous situation, perpetuating a culture of ‘nerd rule,’” Bannon warned. “The combination of technology and capital presents a unique national security threat to the United States.”

Break up the tech elite

The only way to neutralize that danger is for the Trump Justice Department, under incoming AG Pam Bondi, whose confirmation hearings commence Wednesday, to initiate antitrust proceedings immediately to dismantle Big Tech’s monopoly on digital communication, mirroring President Teddy Roosevelt’s actions in breaking up the railroad monopoly in 1902.

Roosevelt’s trust-busting endeavors throughout various industries were welcomed by the public and ultimately benefitted the economy by promoting competition, reducing prices, and enhancing services.

As we head toward an AI revolution that will transform everyday life and work, we cannot afford to have humanity’s destiny commandeered by a select few, power-hungry, low-empathy tech oligarchs like Zuckerberg.