How Mark Zuckerberg became based… by Brazilian jiu-jitsu

In the storied Fast & Furious movie franchise, now eleven films strong, there’s a tradition of the villain from one movie becoming a member of Vin Diesel’s street-racing international shenanigans gang in the next. Luke Hobbs (The Rock) is sent to hunt down Dominic Toretto before asking for his help to track Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), who is also adopted, while Jakob Toretto (John Cena), long-lost brother to Dom, redeems himself from assassinating their father in a sabotaged stock car by helping defuse a rogue weapons system that would cause all of civilization’s computers to collapse. You know, normal family stuff: wreaking havoc on the crew before being welcomed back with a Corona at a backyard barbecue.

I thought of that this week when Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg showed up looking like the lost Silicon Valley member of Dom’s crew to announce his social media company would stop censorship and institutional fact-checking on its platforms. Many were understandably skeptical of his commitment to free speech. In the parlance of F&F, is he really living his life a quarter mile at a time now, or is the Paul Walker tee all for show? 

After all, Zuckerberg admitted last August what many who had faced censorship knew — that the Biden administration pressured Facebook “to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humor and satire,” in 2020 and 2021 and Zuckerberg relented. Couldn’t this turn just be a ploy to kiss up to the incoming administration and ride the vibe shift to favorable treatment? Zuckerberg’s non-profit giving was instrumental in electing Biden in 2020, then he caved to requests to censor Americans, but conveniently changes his mind when Trump comes to power and he has an anti-trust threat looming. 

Zuckerberg told a congressional committee last year the “government pressure was wrong” and he regretted some of the moves the company made, saying then “we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in any direction.” But should we trust this new member of the free speech family? 

I’m an optimist by nature, but a couple of things make me hopeful Zuck will make good, or at least better, on his free speech vision this time around. 

First, admitting mistakes is good and shouldn’t be dismissed entirely. It’s a rare public figure who bothers to say he messed up, had a change of heart and will change his behavior in the future. Zuckerberg has actually made changes beyond promises, neutering and partially defunding the hyper-partisan fact-checking industry in the space of a day to replace it with an X-style community notes function that replaces a compromised priesthood with a conversation among users. 

There’s evidence in his past statements, despite bending in the censorious winds of post-2016 and the feverish culture of the Covid era, his view in starting Facebook was “giving more people a voice.”

In a speech at Georgetown in 2019, which was in the wake of othercontent-moderation controversies, Zuckerberg previewed the temptation he’d succumb to in 2020 when the government came knocking in a “time of social tension”:

In the face of these tensions, once again, a popular impulse is to pull back on free expression. We are at another crossroads. We can either continue to stand for free expression, understanding its messiness, but believing that the long journey towards greater progress requires confronting ideas that challenge us.

Or we can decide that the cost is simply too great. And I’m here today because I believe that we must continue to stand for free expression.

So will he stand up this time? Zuckerberg’s pattern has been to speak up for free speech but bend when that commitment was tested. But he now has a social circle and peers who value strength. 

Our boy is based by Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Zuckerberg has a long history of announcing quirky goals and new hobbies. He’s learned Mandarin (2010), written a thank-you card a day (2014), worn a tie every day (2009). But in 2020, he ditched his yearly quest and started a more long-term evolution.

He started training in the Brazilian grappling martial art form during Covid-19 lockdowns, and by 2023, was medaling in local competitions and boasting a blue belt. In 2024, he acted as an enthusiastic if awkward corner man for a featherweight fighter in UFC 298. The internet memed him, but the league greeted him with open arms, with one fighter climbing the Octagon’s sides to give Zuck a high-five. He called the mixed martial arts community “very welcoming” in a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan this week, his second appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience in as many years.

Zuckerberg also invited UFC head Dana White to be on the board of Meta, calling him a “world-class entrepreneur with a strong backbone.” 

The Zuckerberg of 2018 would not have publicly praised Trump, as he did this summer, for his reaction to his assassination attempt calling it “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.” 

The Zuck of the Covid era wouldn’t have talked to Rogan at all, much less marveled at Mike Tyson’s twenty-inch neck circumference in his prime. Pre-jiu-jitsu Zuckerberg wasn’t bow-hunting wild boar and harvesting meat to teach his children to “understand the circle of life” or saying corporate culture is too neutered in its current state and needs to balance that with more masculine energy and aggression. 

It’s hard to think of a subculture that previewed the vibe shift more clearly than MMA — away from censorship and lockdowns, toward more messy freedom and fun. Here’s hoping all the time he’s practiced not getting choked out means fewer submissions in the future.

“There are a few of these things throughout your in life where you just have an experience and you’re like where has this been my whole life,” Zuckerberg told Rogan. “It just turned on a part of my brain… this is a piece of the puzzle that should have been there and I’m glad it now is.”