We should celebrate Mark Zuckerberg’s rebirth on freedom of speech

Read my latest column for Washington Examiner.

Just a few years ago, I was working as a software engineer at Facebook on their now-infamous “fact-checking” team. At the time — and in the years since — I have pointed out the obvious: while the idea of fact-checking is a good one, since more information is always better than less information, social media platforms handing power over content to biased fact-checkers by has been a monumental miscalculation that has not only helped swing elections against Republican candidates, but damaged trust in social media institutions.

There is nothing wrong with the truth, but there is everything wrong with handing motivated political actors control over what is and is not true.

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Social media — including Facebook, Instagram and now Threads — was once a force for good in the context of the internet’s original purpose: a decentralized environment that enables and protects the ability to freely speak your mind. But in reality, as the power of the internet grew, so did the greed and envy of those who seek nothing but power: our political elite class.

Their rage was clear in the aftermath of the 2016 election, when Donald Trump dared to leverage the power of the internet on his way to victory over Hillary Clinton. So, in partnership with the countless Democrats who make up the bulk of policy-motivated workers in Silicon Valley, the Democratic Party came down on Big Tech like a ton of bricks, essentially strong-arming the entire industry into becoming a propaganda wing of the political Left.

Of course, the vast majority were far too happy to oblige…

The result? Big Tech was a central pillar in Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, and continued to act as the Democratic Party’s internet-based police force.

But today, Mark Zuckerberg — CEO of Meta and founder of Facebook — announced what could be a generational change in policy that — if true — we should all celebrate.

You can read the rest of my latest column on the Washington Examiner website.