John Oliver took aim at Mark Zuckerberg in a new episode of “Last Week Tonight” on Sunday, roasting the Meta CEO for both his new look and for removing fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram after Donald Trump’s election.
While lamenting the fact that several big tech CEOs swung toward Trump after his victory over Kamala Harris, Oliver brought up Zuckerberg’s decision to end Meta’s fact-checking programs last month because they were “too politically biased.”
“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram,” Zuckerberg said in his announcement video, in which he sported longer hair, a casual black T-shirt and a gold chain.
“Oh, is that what you wanted to talk about? Because I’d much rather discuss why you suddenly look like Eddie Redmayne was cast to play Ice Cube,” Oliver said. “You look like white Macklemore. You look like a highschooler going undercover as another highschooler with fewer friends.”
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Oliver continued, “That is the CEO of Meta announcing that he’s getting rid of fact checkers and saying that he doesn’t want to be out of touch with mainstream discourse while wearing a $900,000 watch. And there’s just no way any watch is worth that much unless when you look at it reads, ‘It’s time to donate the rest of your money, you officially seem to have too much.’”
Zuckerberg’s fact-checking decision “does feel like it’s about to make that site a whole lot worse,” Oliver added of Facebook. “And the self-depiction of Zuckerberg — rap name Lil Broccoli — simply embracing his company’s roots around free expression is just self-serving bullshit.”
Oliver pointed out that Zuckerberg faced immense pressure from Joe Biden’s administration to crack down on misinformation, something that the CEO talked about at length when he went on Joe Rogan’s podcast just days after the fact-checking announcement. However, Oliver said it’s beginning to look like “Trump is doing exactly what Zuckerberg accused the Biden administration of: Leveraging the power of his office to pressure social media companies to bend to his will. And Zuckerberg seems to be complying.”
As the late-night host concluded: “He’ll insist these changes are not a result of being under political pressure, but either way Facebook sure seems set to become an absolute sewer of hatred and misinformation — which I know sounds like a pretty good description of Facebook already, but we’re about to see what happens when they really stop trying.”
Watch Oliver’s full segment on Zuckerberg and Meta below.