Mark Zuckerberg’s latest move spells trouble for Labor

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg says he’ll “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.

What a difference Donald Trump is making already to our free speech.

And what a problem for the Albanese government.

Trump’s election as US president has forced Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg to declare an end to political censorship on his social media platforms Facebook and Instagram.

He’s now admitting what Meta long denied – that Facebook was censoring conservatives and the Right, sometimes under pressure from the Biden administration.

Trump’s election as US president has forced Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg to declare an end to political censorship on his social media platforms. Picture: AFP

Now that Trump’s elected, Zuckerberg has just announced he’s firing the nearly 100 organisations he’d contracted to “fact-check” posts, admitting they “have just been too politically biased” and there’s been “too much censorship”.

They will be replaced by readers contributing to “community notes” on controversial posts, much like Elon Musk has ordered at X, formerly Twitter.

Zuckerberg says he’s also removing restrictions in Meta’s filters used to “shut out people with different ideas” on gender and immigration, and get more in “touch with mainstream discourse”.

This already spells trouble for Labor.

Zuckerberg has just announced he’s firing the nearly 100 organisations he’d contracted to ‘fact-check’ posts. Picture: iStock

Meta’s factcheckers were of the Left, like Melbourne’s RMIT Fact Lab, so biased that in one seven-week period in 2023 it targeted 17 opinions against Labor’s Voice, but didn’t check one fake claim of the Yes side.

It even persuaded Facebook to flag as “incorrect” posts correctly noting the Uluru Statement was 26 pages long, not the one page the Prime Minister claimed.

In the US, censorship was even worse. Facebook restricted people sharing a report exposing the damning emails of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

But Labor’s problem with Zuckerberg following Musk in allowing more free speech goes deeper.

Zuckerberg says he’ll also “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.

Those governments include – shamefully – our Albanese government.

It’s demanded social media ban footage of a Muslim youth allegedly stabbing a Sydney bishop.

Zuckerberg says he’ll ‘work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more’. Picture: AFP

It’s pushed for new laws to ban what government-appointed bureaucrats decide is dangerous “misinformation”.

Try that stuff again and this government won’t just have Musk attacking them, but now Zuckerberg as well.

Zuckerberg says Trump’s win felt like “a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising speech”. Australia will now get that point, too.

Originally published as Mark Zuckerberg’s latest move spells trouble for Labor