Intro so Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook Fame as well as meta has written a letter to Jim Jordan and and really it takes ownership of Facebook's and Instagram's election meddling let's talk about it on asouth podcast I'm Barrett McNab and with me is Kimberly McNab so I have the letter here we're going to link it in our Twitter handle um uh as a post so you guys can can look at it so I'm not going to read the whole thing I'll put some of it up uh as a as a What is in the letter? photograph but it probably won't be able to read it but I it just I'm just going to paraphrase some of it I am going to read two specific paragraphs uh just cuz I want to make sure that uh that gets U uh fully conveyed But ultimately it he is accepting responsibility for Facebook and for Instagram to um downplay and listen to the Harris Biden administration's requests to eliminate any misinformation or disinformation supposed uh concerning covid-19 now what um what that included was humor anything that was humorous anything that was satire uh anything that was a meme all of that was pushed down and labeled as misinformation disinformation and uh push down in the algorithm so this this is from Mark's uh uh own own hand so in 2021 senior officials from the Biden Administration including the White House repeatedly pressured our teams for months to censor certain covid-19 content including humor and satire and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams if we didn't agree ultimately it was our decision whether or not to take the content down and we own our decisions including the covid-19 related changes we made to our enforcement in Wake of this pressure I believe the government pressure was wrong and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it now he goes on to say including the hunter Biden laptop controversy in which 50 some OD intelligence operatives including Leon Panetta former director of the CIA um Brennan former director of the CIA James Clapper um dni um you know all signed saying that this was clearly a Russian misinformation campaign and it turned out all of those intelligence analysts uh were lying they they lied and published this letter it was not Russian misinformation but at the request of um these people Facebook also censored and pushed down uh this information as well and then we're going to go on to the last paragraph and it talks about um what commonly is called What are Zuckerbucks? Zucker bucks and I'll and I'll get into that so he he goes to say apart from content moderation I want to address the contributions I made during the last presidential cycle to support electorial infrastructure the idea here was to make sure local election jurisdictions across the country had the resources they needed to help people vote safely during the global pandemic I made these contributions through the Chan Zuckerberg initiative they were designed to be nonpartisan spread across Urban Rural and Suburban communities and it goes to say I know some people believe this work benefited one party over the other and my goal was to be neutral and not play a role one way or the other or even to appear playing a role so I don't make plan on making a similar contribution this cycle so what was commonly referred to as Zucker buuck he was uh had his nonprofit that were giving money and the appearance was or at least some of the reporting that I've seen is that it was primarily going to Democrat and liberal campaigns at the expense of conservative and Republican campaigns now he says he he didn't mean for that to happen he wanted to be neutral but the dollars were not allocated that way as far as the the reporting uh that I have seen so he's pledged to just get out of it all together which I think is a smart move okay well I didn't want to interrupt you on that first of all uh you senser anything that could be satire or hum or humor during 2020 when we're were locked up with what a two and a four-year-old how dare you how dare you I needed every bit of humor I could get and wine and beer oh Russia, Russia, Russia yes and then okay demoted content related to Hunter Biden laptop reported by the New York Post after pressure by the FBI warning of potential Russian disinformation now any time someone says Russia Russia Russia guess what I tune out Russia got Trump elected in 2016 they interfered with the campaign oh co stuff is Russia dis disinformation even uh we were talking about the transgender people whatever you want to call them the men pretending to be women right in in the in the Olympic boxing even you said something about Russia I just tuned out I was like and guess what I think I'm pretty uh symbolic of most of America now like we just hear Russia okay whatever I mean it's the little boy that cried wolf right you get desensitized to it and then the next pandemic pmic comes around guess what we're not believing you again we're not we don't believe you and you know I'm sorry doesn't plan to contribute to any other electoral infrastructure I believe it when I see it because you caved you folded the last time guess what be like Rumble when they wanted uh Russell bran shut down on that platform and they said go stick it where the sun doesn't shine right I mean let's talk about fre to you're going to Cave again and what other platforms are going to Cave well I mean that that's that's Freedom of speech in Big Tech the so let's talk about the freedom of speech in these tech companies that's the reason why Elon Musk purchased Twitter was to get rid of all of that government interference and and pushing down uh you know information uh that that who who gets to cherry-pick and say misinformation is misinformation or disinformation I mean it's just a subjective term it's code for stuff you don't like you're throwing your bear out the crib I mean but but you're in the position of power so we have to play that game unfortunately until you go to bed well I mean that's that's one of the things Telegram Pavel Durov arrested where um the founder and CEO of telegram the Name Escapes him right now off or something yes yeah yes um he uh um is a Russian national he doesn't live in Russia anymore um BEC I think he's based out of Dubai at least uh uh Telegraph um is or tegam Telegram is it's based on Dubai um so you know it is uh a endtoend encrypted messaging system and he landed in France and was promptly arrested because the French government didn't like the fact that uh according to them that he doesn't have enough content moderation on his on his platform and and really if something is to be a a Public Square or a town square then you know of course there doesn't need to be moderation if it's Free Speech but but just just to be clear just because a uh European union or a nation that's a democracy um in claims to be a democracy claims to be a democracy just because they claim to be a democracy does not mean that they have freedoms that we do in the United States uh freedom of speech is different in France than it is in the United States freedom of speech is different than uh in England that it is in the in the United States not existent in England now well I mean yeah I mean so but like the but you know these these democ these European Democracies of which out most of our um uh laws and traditions and everything come from the the European continent but for for example in France you're guilty until you're proven innocent right I mean that that's just that's their that's their legal system not saying it's America is the racist country yeah but America is the but but at least in the United States you're innocent until proven guilty right so the the presumption is that that you're innocent and it's an important legal um you know differentiation between the the two countries so just because countries are democracy doesn't don't doesn't mean that they operate the same and and and with this technology you have telegram you've got uh Snapchat you've got um Instagram and and Twitter X um you know all of these companies are are vying for advertising dollars that's how they how they they operate but um but there are all these platforms for freedom of speech and when the government comes in and curtails it that's a problem yeah well um you know a lot of conservative Does YouTube Blackball Conservatives? commentators uh refer to YouTube as screw tube and uh we have asked um some friends and family about you know ways we can improve our podcast and get more subscribers and one of them even commented sounds like you guys are being a little bit blackballed yeah yeah there's there's um you know let us know what you think in the comments yeah exactly I mean do you want more of this content um because we're not we're not scared of Google and and YouTube I mean you know we'll keep making this content so let us know in the comments if you want to see more of this content where we're just telling the truth um hit that like And subscribe button and share um and and get the word out because you know we feel as though us being truthful and being our our our honest selves and bringing you the information and the opinion as we yeah cuz we're not sponsored we're speaking on our own behalf no one else's behalf yeah exactly and so with this uh with this election season coming up things like this uh you know freedom of of speech and and various freedoms it's important and it just you know it's it's interesting I Democrats are the ones that tamp free speech find it very ironic that that the Democrat Party louds the um the free free speech and and say says that the Republicans are going to Tamp down on Free Speech when that is the exact opposite it's it's literally the exact opposite it's the Democrats that want to crack down on free speech um you know the same thing you know with kamla haris not having an interview I mean they're they're uh in the last segment we talked about how she is uh getting aeing the speech we get to here yeah exactly she's getting a free pass so I I actually when Is Zuckerberg's apology sincere? I read this open letter I think Mark Zuckerberg is sincere I think he he is sincere I know we we disagree on that but he didn't have to write this letter and say um we did get pressure from the Harris Biden Administration and we regret not standing up to the government I mean well I I just love how people get away with stuff four years later I mean what are you going to do about it four years later yeah the damage was done the damage was you got what you wanted now you get to say oops sorry right but you know I don't know if I should take this as a positive or dire warning like okay well we don't really need Mark Zuckerberg any more because we have other ways right to lie cheat and steal well I mean I just we saw this letter and again we'll we'll we'll post it on our um X account uh and I'll uh maybe I'll copy and paste um the words and put them in the description I don't think you can put pictures in in the description but but I'll I'll figure out how to get this out so you can see it word for word but um you know this is this stuff is important and as Technology and AI censorship technology moves faster and faster the ability for AI you know to censor things oh so here yeah here's a perfect example here's a perfect example so I um signed up for grammarly um and I did their their free account and I did their their paid account and I wanted help writing a a script um that that we were going to use and I couldn't do it grammarly so I started typing this is what I want to have have happen and it was a pro- republican uh script that I was writing and grammarly immediately came in and said I can not help you with this same for chat gbt yeah I cannot help you with this because this is conservative politics and I'm not authorized to do that and I I was but if you spin it the other way happy yeah exactly so so I was like well I only wanted you grammarly to help me with this this thing and the one thing that I wanted you to help me with you can't I would I would say that that is is uh you know uh you know deleting freedom of speech from allowing me to uh to have ai assistance in writing a conservative dialogue well the same thing with Google if you try to find some statistics that will back up a something you know is out there but you can't find it either it doesn't find it messes up the wording or if you try to Google a search story it's going to be CNN first and you might get Fox on the third page right but this this affects Closing you and so that's why we want you to keep tuning in to asouth podcast and uh contributing to the dialogue that we're all having so thank you so much for tuning in and please stay tuned after these mess hi everyone thank you for listening if you enjoy our show with all the stories we share we would love your support and it's as easy as clicking that subscribe or follow button this will ensure you never miss an episode and keeps us bringing you these important stories your support makes a huge difference thank you so much for being part of our podcast family thanks and keep tuning in