From ‘masculine energy’ to abolishing fact-checking, Mark Zuckerberg’s latest moves align Meta with Donald Trump

After rescinding Meta Platform’s fact-checking policy, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made another public move that appears to align himself and his large company with the incoming Donald Trump administration.

According to Bloomberg, Zuckerberg spoke on the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” released by influential American media figure Joe Rogan on January 10, expressing his views on the company. expressed regret over their “neutered” status and said they needed to “celebrate male aggression more”.

Rogan is considered one of the most popular podcast hosts in the world, with 19 million subscribers on YouTube and over 15 million subscribers on Spotify. His political leanings run the gamut — he supported Bernie Sanders in 2020 and Donald Trump in 2024.

In the interview, Zuckerberg praised podcasts for driving “a huge change in who the important voices are” compared with traditional media.

The “elusive” masculine energy

“I think masculine energy is good, and obviously there’s a lot of it in society, but I think corporate culture is really trying to get away from it,” Zuckerberg lamented to Rogan during the three-hour conversation.

“It’s like you want feminine energy, you want masculine energy. I think that’s fine. But I do think corporate culture has moved toward this more androgynous thing,” he added.

The billionaire went on to talk about his non-work passions – mixed martial arts and invasive pig hunting in Hawaii, the report added.

About women in men’s businesses…

During the conversation, Zuckerberg also mentioned that he grew up with three sisters and has three daughters, so he wants women to succeed in the company. Notably, Meta was originally created as a Facebook by Zuckerberg while he was at Harvard University, with the report adding that it was piloted to gauge the attractiveness of women on campus.

“If you’re a woman and you go into a company, it can feel too masculine. It’s — you’re not born with enough energy. You want women to be successful and have all the value that unlocks great people. of companies, regardless of their background or gender,” he told Rogan.

On “Cruel” Joe Biden..

Zuckerberg also repeatedly made accusations against outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden during the interview, saying White House officials would “scream” and “swear” at Meta employees over COVID-19-related content during the pandemic. . He first addressed this in an August 2024 letter to Congress.

“This is so cruel,” Zuckerberg said, adding that the government had overstepped its authority in removing posts about the pandemic, including satirical ones, sowing distrust among voters.

“The U.S. government should be defending its companies, not attacking its own companies,” Zuckerberg said, adding that he was “optimistic” about Trump and “I think he just wants America to win.” ”

The report added that the Biden administration declined to comment on Zuckerberg’s allegations.

Meta’s many policy changes

However, while Zuckerberg may continue to pay lip service to facts, equality and women, his latest move has been criticized for moving closer to Trump’s policies.

On January 7, he announced that the company would move from professional fact-checking of content to relying on a “community notes” type of crowdsourced post feature. There are also reports that employees have complained about Meta’s lax content moderation policies, which allow for bias against non-binary, immigrant, transgender and LGBTQ+ users, as well as comments about users’ sex or gender.

On Jan. 10, the company also said it would halt many internal training and hiring efforts aimed at making its workforce more diverse. Notably, well-known brands such as McDonald’s, Harley-Davidson and Walmart have also withdrawn their diversity commitments.

The report added that Zuckerberg has been “repositioning” his company to be more Trump-friendly in recent months. He praised Trump after winning the election on Nov. 5, dined with the U.S. president-elect at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida last month, donated to his inaugural fund and plans to attend Trump’s inauguration . He’s not alone, with the likes of Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos and Apple’s Tim Cook also beginning to court the future Republican president.

(With inputs from Bloomberg)