'I don’t want to be associated.': Jesse Eisenberg distances himself from Mark Zuckerberg

Renowned actor Jesse Eisenberg, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network, has revealed that he deliberately avoids following the tech mogul’s career. In a candid conversation on BBC Radio 4’s Today show, Eisenberg admitted he does not want to be associated with Zuckerberg due to the controversies surrounding him. "It's not like I played a great golfer or something, and now people think I'm a great golfer. It's like this guy that's doing problematic things—taking away fact-checking and safety concerns, making people who are already threatened in this world more threatened," Eisenberg stated, as reported by Variety.

Meta’s shift in fact-checking policies sparks debate

On January 7, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a drastic change in the company’s approach to content moderation. He revealed that Meta would replace its existing fact-checking systems across Facebook and Instagram with a "community notes" feature, similar to Elon Musk’s strategy on X (formerly Twitter). According to Zuckerberg, the previous system had led to "too many mistakes and too much censorship," which he claimed was "too politically biased."

Following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Zuckerberg reportedly met the former president at Mar-a-Lago. As per Variety, Meta also contributed $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, alongside other major tech companies. Furthermore, Zuckerberg attended Trump’s inauguration on January 20, a move that drew criticism from various quarters.

Eisenberg’s concerns over Zuckerberg’s influence

Eisenberg expressed deep concerns about the growing power and influence of tech billionaires, particularly regarding their political alignments and policy decisions. "I'm concerned just as a person who reads a newspaper. I don't think about, 'Oh, I played the guy in the movie and therefore…' It's just I'm a human being, and you read these things, and these people have billions upon billions of dollars, more money than any human person has ever amassed. And what are they doing with it? Oh, they're doing it to curry favor with somebody who's preaching hateful things," Eisenberg remarked.

Currently, Eisenberg is in the spotlight for his latest project, A Real Pain, for which he is nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the upcoming Academy Awards. The film follows the journey of two cousins who travel to Poland to pay tribute to their late grandmother.