Mark Zuckerberg Unloads on Biden White House in Joe Rogan Interview

Mark Zuckerberg unloaded on President Joe Biden and his administration during a surprise appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast that was published Friday.

Zuckerberg attacked the White House over the way senior officials pressured Meta to moderate content on its social media networks, part of a scathing interview just 10 days before Biden is set to leave office.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Why It Matters

Since President-elect Donald Trump's 2024 victory, Zuckerberg has been in the process of a personal and professional reconciliation with Trump (the Meta chief had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November), and MAGA priorities.

In the last week alone, Meta pledged a $1 million donation to Trump's upcoming inauguration, killed its fact-checking program, loosened speech restrictions on how users talk about social issues, gutted its major diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and added UFC president and CEO Dana White—a top Trump ally—to its board.

What To Know

Zuckerberg's recent moves are a strong signal to both his employees and the nation about the future of Meta and the relationship he hopes the social network will build with the incoming Trump administration.

During his appearance on Rogan's show, the tech executive said that his industry is a "bright spot for the American economy" and expressed optimism that Trump would highlight America's strategic advantage in the field.

Zuckerberg also spent a chunk of the interview airing his grievances with President Biden and members of his administration, whom he claimed "would call up our team and scream at them and curse" over COVID-related posts they wanted Meta to take down.

He recalled running the company during the pandemic, saying that he gave deference to the government and public health authorities in the early days of the health crisis because he was "sympathetic" to concerns about misinformation at the time.

"I deferred too much to the kind of critique of the media on what we should do," he said.

But Zuckerberg said that as guidance changed, it became difficult to follow what was and was not accurate — something many Americans can recall feeling in those days.

Things reached a head during the Biden administration's vaccine rollout, according to the Meta chief, who said while he agreed that the vaccines had more positive than negatives, the Biden administration "also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it." He said while he was not directly involved in those conversations, the administration began pressuring Meta "super hard" to take certain posts down.

He also slammed Biden for asserting that social media companies were directly "killing people" by allowing COVID misinformation to spread. Biden later walked back those remarks. But it was too late, in Zuckerberg's telling. Shortly after the president made that comment, different government agencies started coming after the tech company with "brutal" investigations, Meta's chief said.

Zuckerberg also revealed there was one particular meme that the Biden administration wanted Meta to censor.

"They want us to take down this meme of Leonardo DiCaprio looking at a TV, talking about how 10 years from now or something, you're gonna see an ad that says, 'Okay, if you took a Covid vaccine, you are eligible for this kind of payment.' So, this sort of like class action lawsuit type meme," Zuckerberg told Rogan. "[The Biden administration was] like, 'No, you have to take that down.' And we just said, 'No, we're not gonna take down humor and satire.'"

What People Are Saying

Zuckerberg told Rogan: "They pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly, were true, right? I mean they basically pushed us and to, and said, 'You know, anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.' And I was just like, 'Well, we're not gonna do that. Like, we're clearly not gonna do that.'"

President Biden clarified his "killing people" remarks in July 2021 to reporters: "Facebook isn't killing people – these 12 people are out there giving misinformation. Anyone listening to it is getting hurt by it. It's killing people. It's bad information."

President-elect Trump told Fox News Digital on Tuesday: "Honestly, I think they've come a long way — Meta, Facebook, I think they've come a long way."

Mike Issac, a tech reporter for the New York Times, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter: "the Rogan interview with Zuckerberg that dropped this morning is something to behold. basically him dumping years of anger at the media, the government, social discussion. clearly all pent up for years and now allowing himself to do it because of Trump coming to power."

What's Next

Meta's policies are effective immediately. All of them can be read here.