Emma Saunders
Culture reporter, BBC News
Actor Jesse Eisenberg says he “doesn’t want to think of himself as associated” with Mark Zuckerberg
Jesse Eisenberg, who starred as Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in 2010 film The Social Network, has told BBC News he no longer wants to think of himself “as someone associated with someone like that”.
“It’s like this guy is… doing things that are problematic, taking away fact-checking,” Eisenberg told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “[There are] safety concerns. Making people who are already threatened in the world more threatened.”
Meta announced last month it would no longer use independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with X-style “community notes”, where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users.
In a video posted alongside a blog post, Mr Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were “too politically biased” and it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression”.
Getty Images
Mr Zuckerberg (left) at President Trump’s inauguration
But Eisenberg told BBC News he was “concerned”.
“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 said.
“Oh, they’re doing it to curry favour with somebody who’s preaching hate.
“That’s what I think… not as like a person who played 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.”
Legal settlement
Meta’s move came as Mr Zuckerberg and other technology executives sought to improve relations with US President Donald Trump, ahead of his inauguration.
Trump and his Republican allies had criticised Meta’s fact-checking policy, as censorship of right-wing voices.
And after the changes were announced, Trump told a news conference he was impressed by Mr Zuckerberg’s decision and Meta had “come a long way”.
Last week, Trump signed a legal settlement that will see Meta pay out roughly $25m (£20m).
He had sued the company and Mr Zuckerberg, in 2021, over the suspension of his accounts after the 6 January Capitol riots.
Oscar nomination
Eisenberg is promoting A Real Pain, which he wrote, directed and stars in – a comedy drama about two cousins who travel to Poland together to visit Holocaust sites to honour their late grandmother.
The grandmother is based on Eisenberg’s real-life Aunt Doris and was filmed at the home his family used to live in, in Poland.
In the movie, the cousins struggle to reconcile their own modern life problems against the backdrop of one of the 20th Century’s most devastating and horrific events.
Eisenberg’s screenplay has received an Oscar nomination, as has his co-star, Kieran Culkin.
“Grandchildren of Holocaust survivors should wake up every morning and go outside and kiss the ground that they’re alive and thank whatever god they pray to – as the world didn’t want them to be alive,” Eisenberg told Today.
He said he had “tried to connect to bigger things” since making the film.
“I live in a world that feels hedonistic, my life is maybe too easy.”
He added that it was essential the film had a comic feel.
“It would be so sanctimonious without any humour in it.”
Eisenberg was also nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Mr Zuckerberg in The Social Network.
