Zuckerberg calls for "repopulation" of "cultural elite class"
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Mark Zuckerberg spent this week reshaping Meta to be more MAGA-friendly, and capped it off Friday by calling for the "repopulation" of the "cultural elite class" on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Why it matters: Over the last few days, Meta has dropped internal DEI guidelines and opened the floodgates for hate speech, racism, and conspiracy theories, but Zuckerberg's comments on Rogan tie him explicitly to right-wing talking points.
- Specifically, Zuckerberg defined the "cultural elite" as the media — "journalists" and "TV news anchors."
The big picture: Zuckerberg said that a "new class of creators" — social media users — should "become the new kind of cultural elites."
- He skewered the "elite class," even though he himself is the world's third-wealthiest person. It's a common Trumpism as well.
- Having ended fact-checking on his platforms, Zuckerberg is now calling for an end to the traditional media that holds him, and the presidential administration he's appealing to, accountable.
- It's language that's in line with Trump, and the kind of anti-media antagonism usually reserved for autocratic government leaders.
Between the lines: Zuckerberg was vague on exactly what he was criticizing the media for, but elsewhere in the interview, he slammed journalists for reporting on Facebook's role in 2016 election interference.
- "I kind of think in 2016 in the aftermath, I gave too much deference to a lot of folks in the media who were basically saying, OK, there's no way that [Trump] could have gotten elected except for misinformation," he said. "Some of it started with the Russia collusion stuff, but it kind of morphed into different things over time."
- Facebook has wrestled with media outlets before, including in 2018, when the Observer reported on user data illicitly obtained by the Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica.
The bottom line: Meta's decisions to loosen content moderation, change its speech guidelines, curb its DEI efforts, and appoint Trump friend Dana White to its board of directors all point to a MAGA-forward future for the company.
- Zuckerberg's lengthy interview with Rogan was the capstone for the MAGA-fication of the man himself, following his visit to Mar-a-Lago, Meta's donation to Trump's inaugural fund and the changes of recent days.
