Mehta had to ‘bend the knee to Trump’ before the inauguration

Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement this week: meta The idea of ​​shifting moderation policies to allow for more “freedom of expression” was widely seen as the company’s latest effort to appease President-elect Donald Trump.

More than any of its Silicon Valley peers, Meta has taken more public steps to make amends with Trump since winning the presidential election in November.

This followed a highly contentious four-year period between the two sides during President Trump’s first term, which ended with Facebook, like other social media companies, banning President Trump from its platform. It’s over.

As recently as March, Trump used his preferred nickname “Zuckerschmuck” when talking about Meta’s CEO and declared Facebook an “enemy of the people.” .

Meta has now established itself as a major player in the artificial intelligence field, and Mr. Zuckerberg is confident that his company will build data centers and pursue its lofty ambitions, according to people familiar with Meta’s plans. He says he recognizes the need for the White House’s support in promoting policies to make this a reality. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter.

“As powerful as Facebook is, they still had to bow to Trump,” said Brian Borland, a former Facebook vice president who left the company in 2020.

Mehta declined to comment for this article.

Zuckerberg said in Tuesday’s announcement that Meta will eliminate third-party fact-checking, remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity, and put political content back in users’ feeds. Mr. Zuckerberg proposed sweeping policy changes as key to stabilizing Meta’s content management structure, which he said has “reached a point of too many mistakes and excessive censorship.” said.

The policy change was the latest strategic shift Meta has taken since Election Day to align itself with Trump and the Republican Party.

The day before, Meta announced that UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime friend of President Trump, would be joining the company’s board of directors.

And last week, Meta announced that Joel Kaplan, who previously served as the company’s vice president of policy, would replace global president Nick Clegg. Mr. Clegg previously worked in British politics for the Liberal Democratic Party, including as deputy prime minister, while Mr. Kaplan served as White House deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush.

Mr. Kaplan, who joined Meta in 2011 when it was still known as Facebook, has long ties to the Republican Party and once worked as a law clerk for the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In December, Kaplan posted a photo on Facebook of himself with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and Trump during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange.

Many Meta employees internally criticized the policy change, with some saying Meta was abdicating its responsibility to build a secure platform. Current and former employees also expressed concern that marginalized communities could face even more online abuse under the new policy, which is expected to go into effect in the coming weeks.

Despite pushback from employees, Meta plans to lay off 21,000 employees, nearly a quarter of its workforce, in 2022 and 2023, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking. , says they are positive about this move.

These reductions affected many of Meta’s Civic Integrity and Trust and Safety teams. Former employees said the Civic Integrity group was the closest thing the company had to a white-collar union, and its members were motivated to oppose certain policy decisions. Since the layoffs, there has been less friction when Mr. Zuckerberg makes sweeping policy changes, people familiar with the matter said.

Zuckerberg’s outreach to Trump began in the months leading up to the election.

After the first assassination attempt against Trump in July, Zuckerberg called a photo of Trump with blood streaming down his face and his fist raised “one of the most horrific things I’ve ever seen.” is.

A month later, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee alleging that the Biden administration pressured Mehta’s team to censor certain coronavirus-related content.

“I think the government’s pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more vocal about it,” he wrote.

After Trump’s victory, Zuckerberg and several other technology executives visited the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. Mr. Mehta also donated $1 million to President Trump’s inaugural fund.

On Friday, Meta told employees in a memo obtained by CNBC that it intends to discontinue several internal programs related to diversity and inclusion in the hiring process. has also shown favorable moves toward President Trump.

The day before, some details of the company’s new, relaxed content moderation guidelines were published on the news site The Intercept, including statements such as “immigrants are like vomit”. The types of offensive rhetoric that are acceptable are shown. “I’m sure it was Jorge who stole my backpack after track practice today. All immigrants are thieves.”

Mr. Zuckerberg, who has been brought to Washington to testify before congressional committees eight times in the past two administrations, wants to be seen as someone who can work with Mr. Trump and the Republican Party, the people said. .

Meta’s content policy update came as a surprise to many employees and fact-checking partners, but a small group of executives were developing plans in the wake of the U.S. election results. Leaders began planning to publicize the policy changes by New Year’s Day, the people said.

Katie Harvath, former policy director at Facebook and CEO of technology consulting firm Anchor Change, said meta typically undergoes a major “recalibration” after high-profile US elections. When a country undergoes a change of government, Harvas said, Meta adjusts policies based on the political climate to best suit business and reputational needs.

“In 2028, they will be readjusted again,” she said.

For example, after the 2016 election and Trump’s first victory, Zuckerberg toured the United States to meet with people in states he had never been to before. He released a 6,000-word manifesto highlighting the need for Facebook to build more community.

The company faced harsh criticism on its platform after the 2016 election regarding fake news and Russian election interference.

After the 2020 election, and in the midst of the pandemic, Meta took a tougher stance on content related to COVID-19, and in 2021, policy executives said, “The amount of misinformation about virus vaccines is too much by our standards.” . ” These efforts may have appeased the Biden administration, but they drew the ire of Republicans.

Meta is once again responding to the moment, Harvath said.

“Here in Silicon Valley, there was no business risk in moving further to the right,” Harvath said.

Although Mr. Trump has offered few concrete policy proposals for his second administration, Mr. Mehta has many concerns.

Mehta said the White House may have looser AI regulations compared to the European Union, but stricter regulations have prevented the company from releasing some of its more advanced AI technologies. Like other tech giants, Meta needs larger data centers and cutting-edge computer chips to help train and run advanced AI models.

“There are business benefits to a Republican victory because Republicans have traditionally been less restrictive,” Harvath said.

Mehta is not the only one trying to pander to President Trump. But the extreme measures the company is taking reflect a certain level of hostility that President Trump has expressed over the years.

President Trump has accused Meta of censorship and expressed outrage that the company suspended his Facebook and Instagram accounts for two years following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

In July 2024, President Trump posted on Truth Social, “We’re going to go after election fraudsters at a level we’ve never seen before, and they’re going to go to prison for a long time,” and added, “Zuckerbucks, damn it. Put it on!” he added. Trump repeated that statement in his book “Save America,” saying that Zuckerberg conspired against him during the 2020 election, and that if it happened again, Mehta would “be the only one left behind.” “I will spend the rest of my life in prison,” he wrote.

Meta spends $14 million a year providing personal security for Zuckerberg and his family, according to the company’s 2024 proxy statement. As part of its security efforts, the company analyzes any threats or perceived threats to its CEO, according to people familiar with the matter. These threats are cataloged, analyzed, and analyzed by Meta’s numerous security teams.

After Trump’s comments, Meta’s security team asked how Trump could weaponize the Justice Department and domestic intelligence agencies against Zuckerberg, and how they could protect the CEO from a sitting president. The company has analyzed what it will cost the company, said the person, who asked not to be identified for reasons related to the matter. Confidentiality.

Mehta’s efforts to appease the president-elect come with their own risks.

After Mr. Zuckerberg announced new speech policies on Tuesday, former executive Mr. Borland was one of many users who used Meta’s threads service to tell their followers they were quitting Facebook.

“Last post before deletion,” Borland wrote in the post.

Before the post could be published to the thread’s followers, Meta’s content management system removed it, citing cybersecurity reasons.

Borland said in an interview with CNBC that he couldn’t help but laugh at the situation.

“It’s really ironic,” Borland said.

—CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

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