Thanksgiving—a time for turkey, stuffing, and… secret meetings at Mar-a-Lago? While most of us were busy basting our birds or dodging political debates with relatives, Mark Zuckerberg was apparently carving out some time to chat with President Donald Trump. And let’s just say, the conversation wasn’t about cranberry sauce recipes.
Rumor has it that this tête-à-tête has left Meta platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—looking a little less like social media and a little more like the Wild West. Fact-checking? Gone. Bullying and threats? Thriving. Harmful rhetoric? Oh, it’s having its moment in the spotlight. It’s as if the “community guidelines” took a holiday too.
Now, let’s talk about this alleged meeting. Picture it: Zuck, fresh off the Metaverse treadmill, shows up at Mar-a-Lago the day before Thanksgiving. Maybe he brought a VR headset as a hostess gift? Who knows. But whatever went down, it seems to have resulted in Meta platforms bowing to the whims of both Trump and Elon Musk. Yes, Musk—you know, the guy who’s been treating Twitter (or is it X now?) like his own personal science experiment.
The result? A noticeable shift in Meta’s moderation policies, or lack thereof. Fact-checking, once the beleaguered hero of your aunt’s Facebook arguments, has been quietly shown the door. Meanwhile, bullying and harmful rhetoric are partying like it’s 2016 all over again. It’s almost like Meta decided that truth and civility were so last season.
And let’s not forget Threads—Meta’s shiny new Twitter competitor that was supposed to be a kinder, gentler social media platform. Instead, it seems to be taking cues from its older siblings, Facebook and Instagram, in letting the trolls out to play. What happened to the dream of a troll-free utopia? Did it get lost somewhere between the mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie?
Of course, Zuckerberg isn’t exactly known for his stellar track record when it comes to safeguarding online discourse. But this latest move feels particularly brazen, almost as if he’s saying, “Why bother with rules when you can just let chaos reign?” It’s a bold strategy, Cotton; let’s see if it pays off.
In the meantime, users are left to navigate this new reality where misinformation spreads faster than grandma’s gravy and online bullies feel emboldened to throw their weight around unchecked. So much for “bringing people closer together,” huh?
As for Zuckerberg, maybe he should consider hosting his next Thanksgiving at a neutral location—somewhere far away from Mar-a-Lago and its gravitational pull of controversy. Until then, we’ll be over here fact-checking our own family group chats and wondering how social media got so messy.
Pass the wine. We’re going to need it.
