Pivot
Meta Ends Fact Checking, Trump Tries to Redraw the Map, and the Los Angeles Fires
Fri, 10 Jan 2025
Kara and Scott discuss the devastating fires in Los Angeles. They also have thoughts about the decision to end Meta’s fact-checking program. Plus, President-elect Donald Trump has spent the week talking about annexing Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, and making Canada the 51st state. Finally, a listener mail question about responsible podcasting. Follow us on Instagram and Threads at @pivotpodcastofficial. Follow us on Bluesky at @pivotpod.bsky.social. Follow us on TikTok at @pivotpodcast. Send us your questions by calling us at 855-51-PIVOT, or at nymag.com/pivot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the current fires in Los Angeles?
I don't know. She's like the biggest balls in Minnesota.
She does. She's like, we're going to pass that legislation this year, Cara. And I'm like, okay, you're not, but okay.
Don't hold your breath. No, but I mean, more power to her.
You know, she's in charge of the inauguration, essentially. And also she did an overhaul of the security at the Capitol. We talked a little bit about that. And she was in charge of that and got shit done. Yeah.
And she's a fairly young senator at 81 or 82. She's one of the younger Democrats.
Yeah, she gets shit done. She's a get shit done kind of lady. And that she's in charge of the inauguration, that must be like, oh, God, you know. She goes, and we're going to show up, unlike when Trump didn't show up. We're going to show up. Biden's going to show up. We're going to transition power. No, she's got, she's a can-do spirit.
Yeah, we play by the rules and we take the moral high ground and then get our asses kicked. Yay for us.
I don't know if she was being moral. She just was being, this is the Constitution and this is what we shall do. She's not a moral lecturer person.
Yeah. Yeah, I know. I know. By the way, I don't think I've been as angry as I've been in a while until that fucking asshole decided not to shake the vice president's hand. Did you see that bullshit?
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Chapter 2: How has Meta changed its fact-checking policy?
I'm going to live five or 10 years longer than most people. I get to do remarkable things because of this operating system called America and the blessings of America. And yet I have abso-fucking-lutely no fidelity to those values. What is the point of having this much money and this much power if you have to bend the knee to a kleptocrat?
Chapter 3: What are the implications of Trump's recent comments?
But it's more than that. Let me just say, let me do my little rant now, because it's more than just bending the knee. Of course, he's doing it in his self-interest and his business interest, which is always... Mark, someone was like, I think it was on Piers Morgan. He's like, are you surprised? I'm like, no, no, this is what he's like. This is what I've told you he's like.
I wrote a piece in the New York Times where I was like, this guy is the most dangerous person on the planet. He has amplified and weaponized everything, and then he doesn't want to take responsibility. Let me tell you, I've talked to a lot of people inside Facebook and Meta. They are sick to their stomach, Mark, just so you know.
I know Joel Kaplan is kissing your ass to get the job that he got, but let me just be clear. So many people called me this past week. The first person who was this first PR person was like, we got to get off threads now. Like, I've had so many calls. Sick to their stomach seems to do it. And they should be sick to their stomach because you are a sad and shameless weathervane.
In four more years, if the Democrats take over, you're going to shift again because that's what you do. You have no values whatsoever. And I thought Will Aramis did a great piece in the Washington Post—well, places— He goes, Mark Zuckerberg cited a cultural tipping point to justify dumping fact checks and relaxing hate speech rules. Meta-ending fact checks in the U.S.
Chapter 4: How do social media platforms handle misinformation?
made headlines, but the real ballgame here is a broader repudiation of the idea that a company is responsible for bad stuff on its platform. As Zuckerberg puts it, bad stuff. Mark, you don't—bad stuff. He thinks he's going to, like, stub a toe. These people—you put people in danger. Yeah. The company never really wanted that responsibility, and Trump's election allows them to shrug it off.
And they never wanted to. That's the thing is, first of all, these fact-checking systems do make mistakes. So does Community Notes. So does AI. But you have to employ—if you want to build your fucking— social media network, you need to have all of them at work and to impugn these fact-checkers. By the way, they have conservative fact-checkers. They're not all libtards, Mark.
Sorry, they're from conservative publications. If you want to do that, you need fact-checkers that make mistakes and then you correct them. You need AI. You need community nodes to wholly embrace what they're doing at Twitter on top of it with X. is repulsive. Mark, he hates you. Just so you know, they laugh at you behind your back. In front of your back, they laugh at you.
And the fact that he cannot, he switches his tune. I've had conversations where he says, Kara, AI was going to do this someday. Kara, community is going to do this. Kara, moderation is going to do this. I don't believe a word coming out of your mouth anymore. Honestly, you say mendacious fuck all the time, Scott, and I got to tell you, it's exactly... what's happening here.
Now, secondly, when he put UFC CEO and Trump crony Dana White on the board, that also upset people inside the company. And they tamped down the criticism on internal Facebook boards among employees because this guy was caught on a videotape hitting his wife. His wife hit him, but I spent years, years talking to my sons about never hitting a woman.
No matter what, if she hits you, I don't care, right? These are the people he's bringing onto the board of MATA right now because he happens to like doing... you know, MMA. And by the way, Mark, the reason all those MMA fighters hang with you is because you're rich. They don't think you're that good. It's great to hang out with a rich person. And I'm glad you're doing it.
I'm hoping you're having fun. But the whole thing couldn't get worse except for what Amazon did about giving Melania $40 million. No, that wasn't even as bad. And when these guardrails are removed, it is going to be disastrous for people. Scott, take over on your indignancy, please.
Well, I feel a need to just fact-check myself and disclose that on the international markets around meta, I do believe they're going to maintain some fact-checking and safety and security, because I do recognize that there's real danger overseas for people. I mean, this has so many negative ramifications, one of which being that News Corp, when they say Smartmatic and Dominion
have been weaponized in an election and they knew that was not true and decided to put it out anyways or promote it because they knew it would tickle the sensors of their viewers. Then Dominion says, you have defamed us because this has hurt our business and you knew you were lying. The courts say, yes, this qualifies as defamation. You have to pay them $774 million.
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