ANALYSIS: As Meta De-Censors Users, Will Big Tech Follow?

Jan 13, 2025

Algi Febri Sugita / Shutterstock.com

By now you’ve likely seen the video shared by Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg describing his policy updates to the social media platform, which aim to reduce unnecessary censorship of content.

It’s been roughly a week since Zuck announced sweeping changes to Meta platforms to increase first amendment rights by mitigating censorship of certain content. In the more than five-minute-long announcement video, the founder emphasized America’s unique role in global discourse as the only nation that upholds true freedom of speech.

“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world,” Zuck explained. “They’re going after American companies and pushing to censor more. The US has the strongest constitutional protections for free expression in the world. Europe has an ever-increasing number of laws, institutionalizing censorship, and making it difficult to build anything innovative there. Latin American countries have secret courts that can order companies to quietly take things down. China has censored our apps from even working in the country. The only way that we can push back on this global trend is with the support of the US government, and that’s why it’s been so difficult over the past four years when even the US government has pushed for censorship.” (RELATED ARTICLE: Americans Reveal Their Top Concerns For 2025)

What Are The Policy Changes?

The policy changes were succinctly described by Tech Policy Press as:

  • Eliminating fact-checkers in the US and replacing them with a “community notes” system similar to X (formerly Twitter);
  • “Simplifying” content policies by removing certain restrictions on topics like immigration and gender;
  • Changing enforcement approach for policy violations:
    • Focusing automated filters only on illegal and high-severity violations;
    • Requiring user reports before taking action on lower-severity violations;
    • Increasing the confidence threshold required before removing content;
    • Reintroducing civic and political content into recommendation systems on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads;
    • Relocating trust and safety and content moderation teams from California to Texas. “This will help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content,” Zuckerberg wrote on Threads.

Do We Believe Zuck’s Intentions?

“Underreported Stories” creator and host Chrissy Clark noted that Meta previously preached that free speech was already part of their policy platform. Zuck’s video flies in the face of these claims, suggesting yet another so-called conspiracy theory — that Meta censors specific voices — is true.

Another positive outcome from the policy updates is the speed at which stories can be released to the public and turned over, explained Clark. Right now, when bombshell stories hit platforms like X, but do not appear on Meta, news media has to ruminate on the story “because we have follow-up story after follow-up story … on the idiocy of Big Tech censoring those conversations,” she continued. Hopefully the new updates will bring major stories forward and into the light. (RELATED: Left Finally Admits To Biden’s Cognitive Decline During Presidency)

Politico said the move represented Zuck going “full Musk,” a sentiment echoed by the National Review. By removing fact-checkers and replacing them with community notes, Zuck is essentially mirroring Musk’s approach to running a social media platform. But why? To some of you, the answer may feel obvious. It is anything but.

“Reasonable observers will debate the purity of Zuckerberg’s motivations. The optimistic case is that Zuckerberg — who apologized last year for having acquiesced to the Biden administration’s many censorship requests — has genuinely recognized the error of his company’s ways,” NR’s editors wrote in their analysis. “The cynical case is that Zuckerberg is a hollow opportunist who wishes to ingratiate himself with the new administration.”

Influencing Big Tech To Do The Same?

As one of the oligarchs of Big Tech, Zuck appears — at least on the surface — to be turning the tide on how we’re able to communicate and share ideas online. This will likely flood folks back to Meta (if they trust his intentions), and set a precedent for other major tech corporations to do the same, if only for the purposes of increasing business.

TikTok, which may or may not exist by the time you’re reading this article, is one such example. As Clark noted, TikTok censors seemingly all political speech, particularly conservative speech. If the platform is able to stay operational in the U.S., switching up their policies to be more reflective of Meta’s changes could add zeroes to TikTok’s bottom line — which also creates more opportunities for content creators. (RELATED STORY: Progressive Foreign Billionaire May Murder American Talk Radio)

Next up is Google, arguably one of the most powerful institutions in the world. Will Google’s parent, Alphabet, have to follow Zuck’s lead? No, probably not. If Google admitted the so-called “conspiracy theory” about them blocking predominantly conservative voices was true, it would be validating for many, but devastating for the company.

Reactions From Million Voices

When asked whether “I think he badly wants to be as cool as Elon, but I pray he’s having an awakening,” one member, who chose to remain anonymous, told Million Voices.

Do you trust Zuck’s push for no more censorship on Meta? Tell us today by getting involved with Million Voices.

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