Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram who used to deplatform content creators with ‘fact-checks’ of third party fact-checking programme of leftist media and fact-checkers has now blatantly peddled false news about the election outcomes of India.
In a podcast with Joe Rogan, Mark Zuckerberg said “Lot of people in the US focus on this as an American phenomenon but I kind of think that the reaction to COVID probably caused a breakdown in trust in a lot of governments around the world. 2024 was a big election year around the world. And all these countries, India and just a ton of countries that had elections. The incumbents basically lost every single one. So, there is some sort of a global phenomenon where the.. whether it was because of inflation or the economic policies to deal with COVID or just how the governments dealt with COVID, seems to have had this effect that’s global.”
Zuckerberg who till now had used leftist fact-checkers to moderate content is factually wrong as Narendra Modi-led BJP in India won a historic third term in June 2024.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw hit back at Zuckerberg saying that his claim that most incumbent governments, including India in 2024 elections, lost post-COVID is factually incorrect.
“As the world’s largest democracy, India conducted the 2024 elections with over 640 million voters. People of India reaffirmed their trust in NDA led by PM Narendra Modi ji’s leadership.“
The minister expressed disappointment over Zuckerberg’s statement, calling on Meta to prioritize facts and credibility. “It’s disappointing to see misinformation from Mr. Zuckerberg himself,” he added, urging the tech giant to adhere to higher standards of accuracy in public discourse.
Union Railway & IT Minister @AshwiniVaishnaw replies to Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that most incumbent Govts including India lost elections in 2024#Meta pic.twitter.com/R7P6vlYjpb
— Soumyajit Pattnaik (@soumyajitt) January 13, 2025
Facebook has faced criticism for allegedly deplatforming content creators through fact-checking mechanisms perceived to have a leftist bias.
The Babylon Bee, a satirical website, known for its conservative-leaning humor, has experienced content removal and account suspensions on Facebook. In March 2018, an article satirizing CNN was labeled “false” by fact-checking partner Snopes, leading to a Facebook notification threatening to limit The Babylon Bee’s content distribution and monetization. Facebook later identified the notification as a mistake and apologized. Additionally, in October 2020, a satirical piece about Senator Mazie Hirono resulted in Facebook demonetizing The Babylon Bee’s page, citing policies against incitement to violence. These actions have been interpreted by some as targeting conservative or Christian viewpoints.
In August 2018, Facebook deleted videos posted by PragerU, a conservative nonprofit organization that creates educational content. The platform later restored the content, stating that PragerU’s videos had been falsely reported as hate speech. This incident contributed to perceptions of an anticonservative bias in Facebook’s content moderation practices.
It is ironical that Mark Zuckerberg, through Meta’s platforms like Facebook and Instagram, has utilized third-party fact-checkers as part of broader content moderation strategies is today peddling false news himself on a podcast show.
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