Zuckerberg’s MAGA turn insulates Meta for a while. But the business has bigger problems
CNN
Four years ago, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram, saying the risks of allowing him on the platforms were “simply too great” after Trump repeatedly used the sites to broadcast election lies and cheer on the January 6 mob.
Four years ago, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg banned Donald Trump from Facebook and Instagram, saying the risks of allowing him on the platforms were “simply too great” after Trump repeatedly used the sites to broadcast election lies and cheer on the January 6 mob. A lot’s changed. Now, Zuckerberg is making it crystal clear that Meta and MAGA can get along. The social media giant is canning its fact-checkers and making its platforms look a little more like X, the site owned by “first buddy” Elon Musk. At the same time, Meta named Trump ally and UFC boss Dana White to its board of directors on Monday, days after elevating Joel Kaplan, the most prominent Republican lobbyist for the company, to be its new head of global affairs. Meta was one of several large tech companies to donate $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. And Zuckerberg — whom Trump once threatened with life in prison — has personally made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to dine with the incoming president since the election. While Zuckerberg is clearly trying to insulate Meta from Trump’s looming corporate retribution tour, he’s also courting a potential disaster if Meta’s advertisers flee and users begin to associate the brand — already tarnished by AI slop and a yearslong dearth of innovation — with the kinds of unsavory characters who now dominate X. On Tuesday morning, Zuckerberg tapped the president-elect’s favorite TV channel, Fox News, to announce that the world’s dominant social media platforms are now, for all intents and purposes, pro-Trump.
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