Fox News Guest Accuses Zuckerberg of Acting Like the Stasi for ‘Secret Censorship’ of Misinformation on Threads

Is putting a label on questionable sources tantamount to censorship, and is that tantamount to the actions of East Germany’s secret police? One Fox News guest thinks so, at least when it comes to accusing social media users of spreading misinformation.

Author Michael Shellenberger was a guest on America’s Newsroom with Bill Hemmer and Aishah Hasnie (in for Dana Perino), and he had some serious concerns about Meta’s new Threads app and how it’s addressing misinformation on the platform.

Shellenberger cited two cases of new Threads users who had warning labels put on their accounts, stating: “This account has repeatedly posted false information that was reviewed by independent fact-checkers or went against our Community Guidelines.” And many conservatives are crying “censorship” over the effort by Threads to moderate its own community. Shellenberger agrees:

That’s what the First Amendment and freedom of speech is about, is that we’re allowed to have people that we don’t agree with have equal rights to these platforms. And I think you’ll point that, well, Meta and Facebook and Instagram are private companies, that’s true, but taxpayers give them special, very powerful legal liability through something called Section 230. If you’re gonna get Section 230, you’re supposed to be a free and open platform. That’s what Mark Zuckerberg promised, but that’s not what he’s delivering in this case.

But he goes even further, accusing Zuckerberg of acting like “the East German Stasi secret police”:

Congress must act to clarify the rules of engagement by the internet platforms if they’re going to engage in this kind of censorship they should be transparent about it and there should be some sort of right to appeal it. It’s all being done secretly behind the scenes. It’s the kind of stuff you would see by the East German Stasi secret police. This is not what we do in the United States. This is un-American. Mark Zuckerberg clearly doesn’t care about freedom of speech, he just cares about selling user data.

Millions of new users flocked to Meta’s new Threads app, Mark Zuckerberg’s answer to everyone seeking a social media microblogging outlet after Elon Musk’s Twitter let misinformation run rampant.

By the end of the first full day of Threads’ launch, Musk threatened to sue Zuckerberg and Meta, claiming “systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter’s trade secrets and other intellectual property.” A spokesperson for Meta called the claims “baseless,” but most are pointing out that the suit signals how much of a threat Threads poses to a Twitter that has descended into chaos.

Watch the video above via Fox News.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com