Mark Zuckerberg continues MAGA metamorphosis on Joe Rogan’s podcast

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is continuing his right-wing rollout ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second administration. The billionaire, whose company’s policy changes have drawn ire from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and civil rights organizations, defended the new direction on the popular Joe Rogan Experience. During the nearly three-hour podcast episode, released Friday, Zuckerberg championed Meta’s overhaul of content moderation policies, claiming the changes reflect a return to the company’s “roots” in free expression.

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Meta’s decision to allow previously prohibited rhetoric targeting LGBTQ+ individuals, women, and immigrants has led to accusations of pandering to far-right ideologies, especially as the company positions itself for a second Trump administration. GLAAD has labeled Meta’s platforms “unsafe.”

Zuckerberg doubled down on his justification for the policy changes, claiming that prior restrictions on hate speech went “too far” and stifled "mainstream discourse." “We just basically got to this point where there were these things that you just couldn’t say, which were mainstream discourse,” Zuckerberg told Rogan. He pointed to statements like former Fox News personality and Trump nominee for secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s opposition to women in combat roles, saying, “If it’s OK to say on the floor of Congress, you should probably be able to debate it on social media.”

Related: Meta is ending its DEI programs as it eases protections against anti-LGBTQ+ hate speech

Zuckerberg added, “Until we updated our policies, that wouldn’t have been a thing that you could have said on our platforms because it would call for the exclusion of a protected category of people.”

Zuckerberg also touched on broader cultural dynamics, reflecting on Meta’s corporate culture and the balance between “masculine energy” and “feminine energy.”

Zuckerberg reflected on how martial arts had shaped his perspective on corporate culture, contrasting it with what he described as the “culturally neutered” environment of many workplaces. He credited jujitsu with helping him embrace the value of aggression and hard work, describing martial arts as a space where “you just beat each other a bit." He added that corporate culture often shies away from masculine energy, which he believes has merit, but elaborated that celebrating aggression and risk-taking, in balance with inclusion and care, could benefit corporate environments that have become overly risk-averse.

The billionaire also accused the Biden administration of pressuring Meta to suppress certain content, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. He claimed that officials from the administration pushed the company to remove posts discussing vaccine side effects, even when those posts contained accurate information. “They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly true,” Zuckerberg said. He alleged that government officials called Meta’s team “screaming and cursing” and demanded the removal of specific content. “It’s pretty bad,” he added, suggesting such actions bordered on unconstitutional censorship.

The Advocate has contacted the White House to comment on the claims Zuckerberg made during the podcast.

A Human Rights Campaign spokesperson declined to comment on the podcast appearance but sent The Advocate a statement from HRC President Kelley Robinson addressing Meta’s moderation changes.

“Everyone should be able to engage and learn online without fear of being targeted or harassed. While we understand the difficulties in enforcing content moderation, we have grave concerns that the changes announced by Meta will put the LGBTQ+ community in danger both online and off,” Robinson said. “What’s left of Meta’s hateful conduct policy expressly allows users to bully LGBTQ+ people based on their gender identity or sexual orientation and even permits calls for the exclusion of LGBTQ+ people from public spaces. We can expect increased anti-LGBTQ+ harassment, further suppression of LGBTQ+ content, and drastic chilling effects on LGBTQ+ users’ expression.”

Meta has also abandoned its independent fact-checking program, replacing it with a user-driven “Community Notes” system inspired by Elon Musk’s changes to X (formerly Twitter). Zuckerberg praised the approach, telling Rogan, “What X [has] done with Community Notes, I think it’s just a better program. Rather than having a small number of fact-checkers, you get the whole community to weigh in.”

However, watchdogs like Techdirt have identified significant flaws in the model, including susceptibility to bad actors and inefficacy in addressing polarizing misinformation on issues like LGBTQ+ rights. Critics argue the system’s reliance on “cross-ideological consensus” allows harmful content to spread unchecked.

Zuckerberg’s proclaimed return to “free expression” invokes the history of Facebook’s inception. The platform’s origins can be traced back to FaceMash, a controversial website Zuckerberg created at Harvard. FaceMash encouraged users to rank the attractiveness of female students, comparing them side by side. The project was launched without consent from those featured, utilizing hacked photos from Harvard’s directories. The site faced backlash for its objectification and privacy violations, and Harvard’s administration accused Zuckerberg of breaching security and violating student privacy.

Watch Mark Zuckerberg explain his shift in strategy on The Joe Rogan Experience below.

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