Babylon Bee CEO hopes free speech will flourish after Meta’s announcement: ‘Better late than never’
The Babylonian bee CEO Seth Dillon welcomed Meta’s announcement that it was dropping fact-checkers, calling the move a victory for free speech that he only wished had come sooner.
“I think it’s great that Mark Zuckerberg is following Elon Musk’s lead there,” Dillon told Fox News Digital of Meta’s move to bring a “community notes” feature to Instagram and Facebook instead.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing. But the time for Zuckerberg to take a stand for free speech, in my opinion, was when the entire internet de-platformed the current president,” Dillon continued, referring to the social media platforms that banned Trump in 2021.
“Is it better late than never? Of course. But he had a chance there and he didn’t recognize his role in that mistake until now,” he added.
Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon shared with Fox News Digital how social media fact-checkers are hurting his satirical news website and what he thinks about Mark Zuckerberg announcing that Meta will drop its fact-checking program to promote free speech on Meta’s platforms . (Fox News Digital/Getty)
Zuckerberg announced last week that sweeping changes will come to “restore free expression” on social media platforms.
“We will return to our roots and focus on reducing errors, simplifying our policies and restoring freedom of expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said. “More specifically…we’re going to get rid of fact-checking and replace it with X-like Community Notes, starting with the US”
Zuckerberg acknowledged that third-party fact-checkers, which partnered with the Met after President-elect Trump’s election in 2016, proved “too politically biased” and “destroyed more trust than they created.”
The Babylon Bee, a Christian conservative-leaning satirical site that publishes humorous fake news, has often found itself in the crosshairs of these fact-checkers, particularly after making jokes about the liberal media or Democratic politicians.
The Babylon Bee has often been targeted by liberal media fact-checkers for publishing silly fake news. (Babylonian bee)
“We said CNN bought an industrial-sized washing machine to spin the news before it went live,” Dillon said Fox News Digital about a “stupid joke” Bee posted in 2018 that Snopes verified.
In another “report” on the satire page from 2019 which was markedRep. Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., went on the game show, “The Price is Right,” and assumed everything was free.
No matter how outlandish the story, Dillon said their articles were still flagged by these third-party fact-checkers, prompting Facebook to threaten that their account could be demonetized or banned.
“And we’re like, wait a minute, there’s got to be something satirical here, because it’s satire. It’s ridiculous, fake news,” Dillon said. “We literally make up fake stories and then post them on social media. It’s a business model. And so if we can’t even make jokes that are fake funny stories, then satire is not allowed, comedy is not allowed on these platforms.”
“Obviously the stories we’re telling are fake. They’re fictional satirical reports, but they’re based on something true. The reason they’re funny is because there’s truth in them,” Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon told Fox News Digital on its history with fact-checkers. (iStock)
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Although he initially believed that these fact-checkers were just “gutless” people who didn’t like their jokes, he came to believe that the fact-checkers were opposed to the truth behind their jokes.
“Obviously the stories we’re telling are fake. They’re fictional satirical reports, but they’re based on something true. The reason they’re funny is because there’s truth in them, even if the details of the story itself are false. And that’s the truth that . is threatening, because what it does is it’s going to poke holes in the story for whatever it is, or expose the stupidity for what it is, or point out the double standards they don’t want to point out,” Dillon said.
“So I think this attempt at fact-checking was part of a whole censorship apparatus, to shut down different opinions, to use euphemisms like misinformation or hate speech, hateful behavior to categorize speech into these little buckets where they can carry out their politics and deplatform and silence people who are simply saying things they don’t want to be said in a way they don’t want to be said,” he continued.
Over the years, Bee has battled media fact-checkers who have accused the satirical site of deliberately spreading misinformation to mislead people.
In 2021, after facing a legal threat, The New York Times posted a correction to a story that initially claimed Bee was “peddling disinformation.”
The New York Times was forced to offer a correction after it claimed Babylon Bee was “peddling disinformation.” (Photo: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Dillon sees Meta’s new move as part of a larger cultural movement for more free speech and less censorship since Elon Musk took over X, formerly Twitter, in 2022. re-established the Babylon BeeTrump and several other accounts that were suspended.
“The Twitter files exposed a lot of what was going on behind the scenes. I think Americans are tired of not only being lied to by cultural and institutional political power, but also being controlled by what you’re allowed to say, what you’re allowed to think, what you’re allowed to express, there was a lot of opposition,” he continued.
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Whether Zuckerberg’s motive was purely political or sincere, Dillon doesn’t believe it matters as long as the changes result in more voices being heard on Meta’s platforms.
“This is how bad ideas are rejected,” he said. “We’re tired of seeing bad ideas win.”
“So, yes, I’m optimistic, cautiously optimistic that the trend toward more free speech will continue [in 2025]Dillon said.
Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
