Mark Zuckerberg is at war with himself | The Atlantic

We’re All Trying to Find the Guy Who Did This

Mark Zuckerberg is at war with himself.

By Charlie Warzel

January 7, 2025, 6:55 PM ET

Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic

Illustration by Ben Kothe / The Atlantic

January 7, 2025, 6:55 PM ET

Mark Zuckerberg is sick of the woke politics governing his social feeds. He’s tired of the censorship and social-media referees meddling in free speech. 

• We're in a “new era” now, he said in a video today, announcing that he plans to replace Facebook and Instagram fact-checkers with a system of community notes similar to the one on X, the rival platform owned by Elon Musk. 

• Meta will also now prioritize “civic content,” a.k.a. political content, not hide from it.

The social-media hall monitors have been so restrictive on “topics of immigration and gender that they’re out of touch with mainstream discourse,” Zuckerberg said with the zeal of an activist. 

He spoke about 

1. “a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech” f
2. ollowing “nonstop” concerns about misinformation from the “legacy media” and 
3. four years of the United States government “pushing for censorship.” 

It is clear from Zuckerberg’s announcement that he views establishment powers as having tried and failed to solve political problems by suppressing his users. 

That message is sure to delight Donald Trump and the incoming administration. 

• But there’s one tiny hitch. 
• Zuckerberg is talking about himself and his own policies. 
• The establishment? That’s him. . ."