During a sold-out live show of the “Acquired” podcast at Chase Center in San Francisco on Tuesday, Zuckerberg described making a “20-year mistake” of taking responsibility for issues in which he believes Meta wasn’t to blame.
But Zuckerberg, with some newfound swagger and a new T-shirt he designed, kicked things off by saying that he was done apologizing, TechCrunch reported.
“One of the things that I look back on and regret is, I think we accepted other people’s view of some of the things that they were asserting that we were doing wrong, or were responsible for, that I don’t actually think we were,” the Meta chief said, according to Casey Newton’s Platformer.
A recording of the full interview has not yet been released.
“When it’s a political problem … Sometimes there are people who are operating in good faith, who are identifying a problem and want something to be fixed, and there are people who are just looking for someone to blame,” he continued.
Meta has come under fire for numerous problems over the years, including Facebook’s role in fueling ethnic cleansing campaigns in Myanmar, the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the proliferation of misinformation and foreign influence campaigns on Facebook around elections, and concerns over negative mental health effects of social media use by minors.
Zuckerberg has testified — and apologized — before Congress multiple times relating to such Facebook crises.
“Honestly, I think we should have been firmer about and clearer about which of the things we actually felt like we had a part in and which ones we didn’t,” Zuckerberg said at the podcast event. “And my guess is if the IPO was a year-and-a-half mistake, I think that the political miscalculation was a 20-year mistake.”
Zuckerberg said Meta still has a ways to go on rehabilitating its image as a result. “I think it’s going to take another 10 years or so for us to fully work through that cycle before our brand is back to the place that it maybe could have been if I hadn’t messed that up in the first place,” he added.
Earlier this year, in his eighth appearance before Congress, this time for a hearing earlier this year on child safety online, Zuckerberg was grilled by a Senate committee before GOP Sen. Josh Hawley urged him to face families in attendance whose kids were harmed or died from exploitation or abuse on social media.
Zuckerberg then stood and told the families, “No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invested so much.” Families held photos of their children in the air as Zuckerberg spoke.
Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Zuckerberg’s recent statements come as the Meta CEO has undergone an image revamp in the last couple of years, switching up his style, getting fit, and being more personal in his social media posts — with a hearty dose of self-deprecating humor and memes. He’s also feuded with Elon Musk and doesn’t plan on being as involved publicly with politics this election cycle or endorsing a particular candidate.
“Being awkward and getting negative feedback on how I came across definitely made me more careful and scripted,” Zuckerberg said in July post on Threads. “Still not my best thing, but getting a bit more comfortable just being me as I get older.”
As the Facebook cofounder enters his 40s and reflects on his decades at the helm of Facebook, one thing is increasingly clear.
Zuckerberg is officially in his unapologetic era.
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