No turning back: Facebook reckons with a post-2020 world

It's becoming increasingly clear that for Facebook, there is no returning to its habits of the past.

Many of its election-year tweaks to its rules and stepped-up enforcement imposed to crack down on political misinformation were supposed to be temporary.

But the Jan. 6 insurrection, the rise in COVID vaccine misinformation, the persistent spread of malicious conspiracies — coupled with a new U.S. president and growing regulatory scrutiny around the world — have forced a reckoning at the social network.

“They don’t want to be the arbiters of free speech,” said Cliff Lampe, a professor studying social media platforms, moderation and misinformation at the University of Michigan. “But they have to be.”

For CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the past year has presented a series of humbling events that have picked away at his long-held assertion that Facebook is a worldwide force for good. In Facebook posts, public comments and discussions with employees, the CEO appears to be increasingly grappling with the dark side of the empire he created.

Take his approach to former President Donald Trump, who until January enjoyed special treatment on Facebook and other social media platforms, despite spreading misinformation, promulgating hate and — what finally got him banned — inciting violence.

“Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies," Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page on Jan. 7, explaining the company's decision to suspend Trump. “We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech."

A day earlier, violent insurrectionists, egged on...