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Molly Butler / Media Matters

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Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Joel Kaplan go on right-wing media tour, promoting policy rollbacks and currying favor with Trump

Zuckerberg and Kaplan both took to conservative outlets to blast Biden’s tech regulations, complain about so-called “censorship,” and praise Trump

Written by Jack Wheatley

Research contributions from Noah Dowe

Published

Following Meta’s announcement of significant policy rollbacks — which include “scrapping” fact-checking in the U.S. “entirely” and loosening content moderation — the company’s founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and the company’s new chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, have been making the rounds in right-wing media.

During these right-wing media appearances, which come ahead of Trump’s return to the White House, Zuckerberg and Kaplan praised Trump as “a real opportunity for us to push forward on free expression everywhere around the world” and complained about previous content moderation policies, saying they were “too restrictive,” likening them to “censorship,” and placing the blame on a supposed “heavy-handed” Biden “regime.”

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  • Meta capitulates to false right-wing claims of censorship and rolls back content moderation policies

    • On January 7, Meta announced significant changes to its existing content moderation policies across all of its platforms — eliminating third-party fact-checking and removing several crucial content moderation policies. Instead of third-party fact checkers, Meta said it would move toward a system of community notes, shifting responsibility for reining in misinformation on its platforms away from the company. In his video announcement, Zuckerberg justified the changes by claiming that “the recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.” [Meta, 1/7/25; Media Matters, 1/7/25]
    • Notably, both the substance of Meta’s new policy changes and the messaging behind their rollout signal a direct appeal to the incoming Trump administration and MAGA media. For years, conservative media personalities have painted themselves as defenders of free speech while falsely claiming that social media companies were censoring their views. Media Matters and others have repeatedly debunked these claims. [Media Matters, 1/7/25]
    • Following the announcement, Meta began making significant content moderation changes. These changes included replacing the term “Hate Speech” in its community standards with “Hateful Conduct,” and allowing posts referring to transgender people as “it,” comparing women to “household objects,” and alleging “mental illness … based on gender or sexual orientation.” Notably, Meta allowed a variety of previously restricted content which dehumanizes women, LGBTQ people, and immigrants, among others. [Meta, accessed 1/15/25; The Verge, 1/7/25]
    • To roll out the policy changes, Kaplan — who is a former GOP political operative — gave an exclusive interview on Fox & Friends. Zuckerberg’s announcement video was also reportedly first shared with Fox News. [The New York Times, 1/2/25; CNN, 1/7/25; The Washington Post, 2/20/20; Media Matters, 9/9/20]
    • After his Fox News appearance, Kaplan also joined conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show, and Zuckerberg appeared as a guest on Joe Rogan’s podcast. [Salem Radio Network, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 1/8/25; YouTube, The Joe Rogan Experience, 1/10/25]

  • Joel Kaplan gave an exclusive interview to Fox, detailing policy changes and emphasizing how Meta wants to “work with President Trump”

    • On the January 7 episode of Fox & Friends, Kaplan discussed Meta’s policy changes, calling them “a great opportunity for us to reset the balance in favor of free expression” and “getting back to our roots and free expression.” Kaplan immediately noted Meta’s decision to eliminate third-party fact-checking, claiming there has “just been too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check and how, so we’re just scrapping it entirely.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/7/25]
    • Additionally, Kaplan called the previous content moderation policies — which included the company's hate speech policy — “too restrictive,” and adopted right-wing rhetoric by comparing standards designed to protect vulnerable groups to “censorship.” He stated that “people want to discuss and debate” things like “immigration, trans issues, gender,” and also claimed, “We want to make it so that, bottom line, if you can say it on TV, you can say it on the floor of Congress, you certainly ought to be able to say it on Facebook and Instagram without fear of censorship. So we’re changing those rules.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/7/25]
    • Kaplan praised the incoming Trump administration, calling them “big defenders of free expression” and contrasting them to so-called “societal and political pressure” for “more content moderation, more censorship” over the last 4 years. Kaplan: “We’ve got a real opportunity now. We’ve got a new administration and a new president coming in who are big defenders of free expression and that makes a difference.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/7/25]
    • He went on to complain about pressure from governments abroad and promised, “We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on that kind of thing around the world.” Kaplan: “One of the things that we experienced, is that when you have a U.S. president administration that’s pushing for censorship, it just makes it open season for other governments around the world that don't even have the protections of the First Amendment to really put pressure on U.S. companies.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/7/25]
    • Kaplan said Trump is “really focused on making sure that we maintain U.S. competitiveness and leadership on technology, things like AI,” describing them as “obviously super important to our company and our industry and we’ll look forward to working with the new administration to advance those goals.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 1/7/25]

  • Kaplan also went on Hugh Hewitt’s show, attacking Biden and fawning over Trump

    • On January 8 — the day after Meta’s announcement — Kaplan appeared on conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt’s show to promote the changes to Meta policies, saying that “people are ready for a return to the values of free expression.” [Salem Radio Network, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 1/8/25]
    • As he did in his appearance on Fox News, Kaplan described Meta’s third-party fact-checking system as “too politically biased.” [Salem Radio Network, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 1/8/25]
    • Kaplan said that Meta was “looking forward to … working with President Trump” to fight regulation of Meta abroad, complaining that other countries have “taken a much more aggressive approach through regulation to censorship online.” He went on to describe it as “a real opportunity for us to push forward on free expression everywhere around the world.” [Salem Radio Network, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 1/8/25]
    • Lambasting the Biden administration’s regulation of social media companies, Kaplan called the administration a “heavy-handed regime.” He described the administration’s rules as “a real hindrance to growth” and said that tech companies should “be very optimistic that we're gonna come out from under this really heavy-handed regime that we've had over the last 4 years of just regulation across the board.” [Salem Radio Network, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 1/8/25]

  • Zuckerberg appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, complaining about the Biden administration's supposed pressure and claiming Trump will defend Meta from EU regulations

    • In the January 10 appearance on Rogan’s podcast, Zuckerberg claimed that Biden’s administration has pressured Meta to remove claims about vaccine side effects that “honestly were true.” Zuckerberg: “They pushed us super hard.” [YouTube, The Joe Rogan Experience, 1/10/25]
    • Praising Trump, Zuckerberg suggested, like Kaplan, that he’s “optimistic” that the incoming administration would shield tech companies from fines imposed by the European Union. Zuckerberg claimed that “the EU is basically, and all these other places, just free to just go to town on all the American companies and do whatever you want,” and added that “to some degree, if the U.S. tech industry is going to continue being really strong, I do think that the U.S. government has a role in, in basically defending it abroad. And that's one of the things that I'm optimistic about will happen in this administration.” [YouTube, The Joe Rogan Experience, 1/10/25]
    • Zuckerberg claimed Trump “just wants America to win.” [YouTube, The Joe Rogan Experience, 1/10/25]
    • While discussing his decision to add UFC CEO Dana White to Meta's board of directors, Zuckerberg praised White’s efforts to rebuild the UFC, and said he wants to utilize that strategy for Meta. He said that “we have a lot of governments and folks around the world putting a lot of pressure on our company, and, like, we need some, like, strong people who are gonna basically, you know, help advise us on how to handle some of these situations.” [YouTube, The Joe Rogan Experience, 1/10/25]
    • Referencing competition from foreign governments on AI production, Zuckerberg complained about government oversight into Meta, and said “you could get a lot more done if the government were helping American companies rather than kind of slowing you down at every step along the way.” He went on to add that “it's easy for the government to take for granted that the U.S. will lead on all these things when I think it's a very close competition,” and that he would like the government to “be a force that's helping us to do these things.” [YouTube, The Joe Rogan Experience, 1/10/25]