Mark Zuckerberg lamented the rise of “culturally neutered” firms which have sought to distance themselves from “masculine power”, including that it’s good if a tradition “celebrates the aggression a bit extra”.
“Masculine power I feel is nice, and clearly society has loads of that, however I feel that company tradition was actually attempting to get away from it,” Zuckerberg mentioned throughout an almost three-hour-long dialog with podcaster Joe Rogan on Friday.
“It’s such as you need female power, you need masculine power,” Zuckerberg mentioned. “I feel that that’s all good. However I do suppose the company tradition type of had swung in the direction of being this considerably extra neutered factor,” he added, earlier than discussing his passions for blended martial arts and looking invasive pigs in Hawaii.
Zuckerberg, who launched his profession by ranking the attractiveness of girls at Harvard College, added that he grew up with three sisters and has three daughters, and needs ladies to reach firms.
“When you’re a lady going into an organization, it in all probability feels prefer it’s too masculine. It’s — there isn’t sufficient of the power that you could be naturally have,” he instructed Rogan. “You need ladies to have the ability to succeed and have firms that may unlock all the worth from having nice individuals it doesn’t matter what their background or gender.”
The podcast episode was launched simply days after Meta loosened its content material moderation insurance policies for Instagram and Fb to permit extra leniency for customers criticising immigrants, transgender and nonbinary individuals, or making exclusionary statements primarily based on somebody’s intercourse or gender. On Tuesday, Meta additionally introduced the top of third-party fact-checking within the US, and on Friday, the corporate mentioned it was halting a lot of its inner coaching and hiring efforts aimed toward making its workforce extra various.
Trump connection
The Friday episode marked Zuckerberg’s second look on Rogan’s present. Rogan, who is taken into account to be the preferred podcaster on the planet, has 19 million subscribers on Google’s YouTube and greater than 15 million on Spotify.
Within the interview, Zuckerberg expressed discomfort about participating with the standard press, including that podcasts are serving to to gas a “sea change by way of who’re the voices that matter”.
Learn: White Home pressured Fb to take down Covid-19 content material: Zuckerberg
US President-elect Donald Trump joined Rogan’s podcast as election day neared final yr, fuelling what got here to be dubbed the “podcast election” as campaigns turned to them as a substitute of conventional media to get out their message. Zuckerberg has been repositioning his firm to be extra Trump pleasant in latest months and had dinner with the president-elect at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s membership in Florida. Zuckerberg additionally plans to attend Trump’s inauguration.
Because the US election, Zuckerberg has sought to align himself with the incoming administration — praising Trump publicly, donating to his inaugural fund, appointing a key supporter to Meta’s board and most lately altering his platforms’ content material insurance policies.
Zuckerberg criticised the Biden administration through the Rogan interview, claiming White Home officers would “scream” and “curse” at Meta staff amid discussions about methods to reasonable content material associated to Covid-19 through the pandemic.
“It was brutal,” Zuckerberg mentioned, including that the administration overstepped in its requests to take down posts concerning the pandemic, together with satire, sowing mistrust among the many citizens. He beforehand wrote about these complaints in a letter to the US congress in August.
“The US authorities must be defending its firms, not be on the tip of the spear attacking its firms,” Zuckerberg mentioned. In distinction, the Fb founder mentioned he’s “optimistic” about Trump returning to the White Home. “I feel he simply desires America to win,” he mentioned.
Learn: Meta cuts reality checkers days earlier than Trump takes workplace
US President Joe Biden, in a uncommon White Home press convention on Friday night, expressed dismay over Meta’s determination.
“It’s simply fully opposite to all the things America is about. We wish to inform the reality. We haven’t at all times executed it as a nation. We wish to inform the reality,” the president mentioned. “And you realize, when you may have tens of millions of individuals studying, logging on, studying these things, it’s — anyway, I feel it’s actually shameful.” — Riley Griffin, with Ashley Carman, (c) 2025 Bloomberg LP
Get breaking information from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Enroll right here.
