The Daily Beast, finding the buried lede in a broader New York Times story about Facebook troubles, reports that Mark Zuckerberg restored prominence to credible news outlets after election day by flipping a "secret switch". Though affecting less credible news of all stripes, it overwhelmingly hurts conservative media whose coverage centers on Facebook-friendly conspiracy theories and misinformation.
The drastic shift, intended to fight rampant election misinformation problems, resulted in skyrocketing visibility for mainstream publishers like CNN and NPR and a downturn in engagement for hyper-partisan pages like Breitbart and Occupy Democrats.
If it seems comically selfish that Zuckerberg would profit from the far right until election day, then immediately about-face in obeisance to the changing wind, remember that he renounced his own atheism days before Trump took office in 2017.
There's nothing particularly cunning or covert about Zuckerberg. He reacts to pressure like a chemical, and media cynics just can't quite accept that the jejeune creature he seems to be is for real. He will do whatever mercenary thing is in his and Facebook's immediate interest and doesn't give a shit what anyone thinks about it.
