‘Social Network’ star bristles at association with ‘problematic’ Mark Zuckerberg

Oscar-nominated actor Jesse Eisenberg, who portrayed Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in the 2010 film, “The Social Network,” is distancing himself from the tech titan, calling Zuckerberg’s recent actions “problematic.”

In an interview with BBC News, Eisenberg reacted to still being thought of for his Zuckerberg role and admitted he’d rather not be “associated” with the Meta CEO.

“I haven’t been following his life trajectory, partly because — when I think of myself as associated with somebody like that, it’s not like I played a great golfer and now people think I’m a great golfer,” Eisenberg said. 

“It’s this guy that’s doing things that are problematic. Taking away fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened,” he added.

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Zuckerberg announced last month that Meta would be removing its third-party fact-checking program and move to a “community notes” feature, similar to X.

“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said in a video message. 

Zuckerberg admitted that the third-party fact-checkers, who partnered with Meta after President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, had proven to be “too politically biased” and had “destroyed more trust than they created.”

The move spurred outrage from some left-leaning media commentators who called the changes “dangerous.”

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Zuckerberg and several other top tech billionaires have cozied up to the president since the election, marking a major departure from the left-leaning politics of Silicon Valley.

Zuckerberg, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were among the tech leaders in attendance at Trump’s inauguration last month. 

Several major tech companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google also donated millions collectively to Trump’s inaugural fund.

Eisenberg said he was concerned about how Zuckerberg and other billionaires were using their money.

“I’m a human being and you read these things. These people have billions upon billions of dollars, like more money than any human person has ever amassed, and what are they doing with it?” he asked. 

“Oh, they’re doing it to curry favor with somebody who’s preaching hate. That’s what I think. Not as a person who played him in a movie. I think of it as somebody who is married to a woman who teaches disability justice in New York and lives for her students are going to get a little harder this year.”