‘Sewer of hatred and misinformation’: John Oliver digs at Facebook’s new policy on content moderation
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently changed the social media platform’s content moderation policies after aligning himself with President Donald Trump. Comedian John Oliver laughed at Zuckerberg’s decision to bend the knee.
In an announcement by Zuckerberg in January, Facebook will do away with fact-checkers in exchange for community notes. “We’re going to get back to our roots,” Zuckerberg said. He also claimed that Facebook will “restore” freedom of expression on the platform. “First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X, starting in the US.” Zuckerberg doesn’t elaborate, but it’s assumed that people will be left to discern and defend facts the way X users do.
Essentially, anyone can be a community notes poster. If a claim is not true, these posters can add a community note that corrects the claim. John Oliver raised that community notes hadn’t been successful in combating misinformation at X. He cited a study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate. They claimed, “74% of accurate community notes on US election misinformation never get shown to users.” Essentially, people can agree with the misinformed opinion and lack correction.
“Facebook sure seems now set to become an absolute sewer of hatred and misinformation,” Oliver remarked at his Last Week Tonight with John Oliver show. “Which I know sounds like a pretty good description on Facebook already. But we’re about to see what happens when they really stop trying.”
Oliver attributed Facebook’s policy changes to President Trump’s threats against Zuckerberg. Trump had previously accused Zuckerberg of conspiring against him in the 2020 presidential election. During his 2024 campaign, Trump claimed that Zuckerberg would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he conspired against him again. The Facebook CEO has two clear options: compliance or subjugation, and it seems that he chose the latter.
Alternatives to Facebook
Due to these changes, Oliver reminds social media users that there are alternative platforms to join. He recommended social media sites Bluesky, Pixelfed, Mastodon, and Signal. Needless to say, these sites are not necessarily mainstream sites. Particularly, those outside of the United States may not have heard of these emerging social media platforms.
But for those who can’t leave Facebook, Oliver had a particularly eyebrow-raising suggestion. He recommended users make themselves “less valuable” to META and its advertisers. Oliver links his extremely suspicious URL: https://johnoliverwantsyourraterotica.com/ to help people change their advertisement settings. Tried and tested, the link is absolutely safe to open on work browsers—even if it looks horrible on browser history.
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