JONATHAN TURLEY: Metin Zuckerberg is making a free speech move that could be truly transformational
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“Faithful friends are hard to find.” For the free speech community, those words of Shakespeare have long been tragically true. Indeed, right down to the tech billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter (now X), we were losing ground around the world to an unprecedented coalition against free speech by government, corporate, media and academic interests.
Now Musk may have added a new key ally that could help reverse free speech: Mark Zuckerberg.
In a new video, The chief director of Meta announced that the company will adopt X standards and restore free speech protections on Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms. Meta will also end its third-party fact-checking program, introduce a ‘community notes’ system and focus on removing criminal and fraudulent material—the guidelines themselves suggested by some of us in previous years.
For the free speech community, it was like the United States entering World War II to support Great Britain. Where Musk halted the progress of the global movement against free speech, Zuckerberg may actually help us regain ground around the world.
As one of Zuckerberg’s most vocal critics of free speech, the CEO of Meta is hard to believe. We all love redeeming sinners, but it would have been more impressive if the redemption had preceded the arrest.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee heard testimony from leaders of the largest technology companies about the dangers of sexually exploiting children on social media. to the media. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
So allow me a brief cathartic moment…
In the past few years, a mix of House investigations and litigation have thrown much of the censorship system under the Biden administration into the public eye. It is expected to draw even more attention as discovery continues in the Missouri v. Biden case, showing years of false statements about the extent of this government-business alliance on social media platforms.
In my recent book, “An Inalienable Right: Freedom of Speech in an Age of Rage,” I wrote about Zuckerburg and Meta’s censorship record, including their failure (until recently) to release the Facebook files.
Meta resisted attempts to reveal this evidence for years, even after Musk was released Twitter files and revealed a system of censorship that one court described as perfectly “Orwellian”.
While Zuckerburg portrayed Meta as an unwilling partner in this system of censorship in his Tuesday video, he and the company ignored several years of complaints from many of us about the key role the company plays in targeting and censoring dissenting viewpoints.
Facebook even ran a creepy advertising campaign try to convince young people to accept what they call “content modification” as part of their evolution with technology. It didn’t work.
While Zuckerburg portrayed Meta as an unwilling partner in this system of censorship in his Tuesday video, he and the company ignored several years of complaints from many of us about the key role the company plays in targeting and censoring dissenting viewpoints.
When the anti-free speech movement focused on Musk, Zuckerberg did nothing for years. Fearing that other companies might roll back free speech protections, members of Congress, including now Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., sent a scathing letter to Facebook saying it shouldn’t even consider such a move or the risk of becoming “part of our ongoing surveillance efforts.”
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In a November 2020 Senate hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., warned Zuckerberg and other CEOs that he and his Colleagues from the Senate would not tolerate any “backsliding or curtailment” by “failing to take action against dangerous disinformation.”
While Musk defied those threats, the pressure seemed to work for Zuckerberg. It wasn’t until the Republicans won both houses and the White House that Zuckerberg and Meta decided that free speech was worth fighting for.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News on Tuesday, Meta’s chief global officer, Joel Kaplan, acknowledged that Trump’s election has changed the situation for the tech company: “We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a great supporter of freedom of expression.”
When the anti-free speech movement targeted Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg did nothing for years. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s a chilling statement when you think about what could have happened if he had Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, arguably the most anti-free speech ticket in history, won. Presumably, the new source in Meta would turn into a frozen tundra for free speech.
All over the world, freedom of speech is in free fall. Speech crimes and censorship have become the norm in the West. A new industry of “disinformation” specialists has turned censorship into a commodity, making millions from targeting and silencing others. A culture against free speech has taken root in government, higher education, and the media.
Either we hold the line now or lose this essential right for future generations. Zuckerberg could make this a truly transformative moment, but it will take more than a passing meta-culpas.
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We need Zuckerberg now more than ever.
So, with that out of the way, I can get to what I’ve been dying to say: Mr. Zuckerberg, welcome to the fray.
