In November 2016, when Facebook was blamed for a flood of fake news and conspiracy theories surrounding Donald J. Trump’s primary election, Mark Zuckerberg, the social network’s chief executive, wrote an apologetic post.

In his message, Mr. Zuckerberg announced a series of steps he plans to take to deal with false and misleading information on Facebook, such as working with fact-checkers.

“The bottom line is: We take misinformation seriously,” he wrote in a personal Facebook post. “There are many reputable fact-checking organizations,” he added, “and while we have contacted some, we plan to learn from many more.”

Eight years later, Mr. Zuckerberg is no longer apologizing. On Tuesday, he announced that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, would end its fact-checking program and return to its roots around free speech. The fact-checking system has led to “too much censorship,” he said.

It was the latest step in a transformation by Mr. Zuckerberg. In recent years, the now 40-year-old CEO has abandoned his mea culpa approach to problems on his social platforms. Fed up with the seemingly incessant criticism of his company, he told executives close to him that he wanted to return to his original views on free speech, which includes a lighter hand in content moderation.

Mr. Zuckerberg redesigned Meta as part of the transition. The CrowdTangle transparency tool that helped researchers, academics and journalists monitor conspiracy theories and misinformation on Facebook has disappeared. The company’s election integrity team, once touted as a group of experts focused solely on voting-related issues, has been folded into a general integrity team.

Instead, Mr. Zuckerberg has promoted technology efforts at Meta, including its investments in the immersive world of the so-called Metaverse and its focus on artificial intelligence.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s change was visible on his social media. Photos of him uncomfortably dressed in a suit and tie and testifying before Congress have been replaced by videos of him with longer hair and gold chains, engaging in extreme sports and sometimes foraging for food himself. Long, strongly proclaimed Facebook posts about Meta’s commitment to democracy no longer appear. Instead, he posted jokes in threads reacting to celebrity athletes and videos showcasing the company’s latest AI initiatives.

“This shows how Mark Zuckerberg feels that society is becoming more accepting of the libertarian and right-wing viewpoints that he has always held,” said Katie Harbath, chief executive of Anchor Change, a technology consulting firm, who previously worked at Facebook. “This is an evolved return to its political origins.”

Mr. Zuckerberg has long been a pragmatist who has gone where the political wind blows. He has spoken out about how much political content should be shown to Facebook and Instagram users. He previously said social networks should be about entertaining, relatable content from family and friends, but then said Tuesday that Meta would show more personalized political content.

Mr. Zuckerberg has told executives close to him that he is happy with his company’s new direction. He sees his latest moves as a return to his original thinking on free speech and expression, with Meta limiting surveillance and control of content, said two Meta executives who spoke to Mr. Zuckerberg last week.

Mr. Zuckerberg has never been comfortable with the involvement of outside fact-checkers, academics or researchers in his company, one of the executives said. The two executives said he now believes many of the steps taken after the 2016 election were a mistake.

“Fact checkers were simply too politically biased and destroyed more trust than they created,” Zuckerberg said in a video on Tuesday about the end of the fact-checking program, echoing statements from leading Republicans over the years.

Meta declined to comment.

Those who have known Mr. Zuckerberg for decades describe him as a natural libertarian who enjoyed reading books praising free speech and the free-market system after he dropped out of Harvard in 2004 to found Facebook. As his company grew, so did pressure to become more responsive to complaints from world leaders and civil society groups that he wasn’t doing enough to moderate content on his platform.

Crises, including a genocide in Myanmar in which Facebook was accused of allowing hate speech against the Muslim Rohingya people to spread, forced Mr. Zuckerberg to expand moderation teams and set rules for speech on his social networks.

He was trained to become more involved in politics by people close to him, including Sheryl Sandberg, Meta’s former chief operating officer. After the 2016 election, Mr. Zuckerberg launched a public campaign to clear his name and save his company. He held regular meetings with leaders and invited politicians to visit his company’s headquarters, introduced transparency tools like CrowdTangle and hired fact-checkers.

In 2017, he announced that he would conduct a “listening tour” of the United States to get “a broader view” of how Americans use Facebook. The campaign-style photo ops with farmers and auto workers led to speculation that he would run for political office.

Despite his efforts, Mr. Zuckerberg continued to be blamed for the misinformation and falsehoods spread on Facebook and Instagram.

In October 2019, Mr. Zuckerberg began pushing back. In a speech at Georgetown University, he said Facebook was founded to give people a voice.

“I am here today because I believe we must continue to stand up for free speech,” he said.

When riots broke out at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 following the presidential election, Meta was again blamed for giving a speech that fueled the violence. Two weeks later, Mr. Zuckerberg told investors that the company was “considering steps” to reduce political content on Facebook.

Since then, his development has been steady. Executives, including Ms. Sandberg, who pushed Mr. Zuckerberg to get directly involved in politics have left the company. Those closest to him now welcome him focusing on his own interests, which include extreme sports and rapping for his wife, as well as promoting his company’s AI initiatives.

In a podcast interview in San Francisco that Mr. Zuckerberg recorded live in front of 6,000 viewers in September, he spoke for nearly 90 minutes about his love of technology. He said he should have rejected allegations that his company was responsible for social ills.

“I think the political misjudgment was a 20-year mistake,” he said. He added that it could take another decade to get his company’s brand back to where he wanted it.

“We will get through this and emerge stronger,” Zuckerberg said.