Since 2016 Facebook and Instagram have been a big thorn in the side of His Darkness. They heavily promoted (ramped up platform engagement) anti Trump stories/rhetoric and canceled or reduce engagement for pro conservative/Trump pieces.
They never accepted Trump's first term and actively followed Joe's orders during the last four years.
That's all changed. Zuck, like most Mag 7 (Apple, Amazon, Microsoft...etal) CEOs realize Trump has a much stronger national following now, controls both Houses and poses a considerably greater threat as an enemy.
They're kissing the ring. Dana White as you may recall, did the opening speech for Voldemort at the GOP convention. Trump's going to reframe Meta's platform so he can use it to bypass mainstream news channels and combine with the folks he'll place in control of TikTok.
Meta elects UFC CEO Dana White, two others to board
By Reuters
January 6, 2025
Jan 6 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms (META.O), opens new tab said on Monday it had elected three new directors to its board, including Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and close friend of President-elect Donald Trump.
The Facebook-parent also elected Charlie Songhurst, an investor and former Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab executive, as well as John Elkann, CEO of Exor, a holding company controlled by Italy's Agnelli family with interests in European businesses such as Ferrari and Christian Louboutin.
"Dana, John and Charlie will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables and the future of human connection," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.
Trump has had a long relationship with White, who had spoken in support of his candidacy at the Republican National Convention in July, and previously at the 2016 and 2020 conventions.
Zuckerberg, likewise, has developed a relationship with White in recent years as a mixed martial arts enthusiast and recreational fighter.
In one of their early public exchanges, Zuckerberg thanked White in an Instagram post in 2022 for inviting him to attend a UFC fight, while the UFC posted a photo online of the two embracing in front of the "Octagon" cage where fights take place.
Elkann is also the executive chairman of Stellantis NV and Ferrari, and chair of the nonprofit Agnelli Foundation, which focuses on education.
Songhurst has been serving on a four-member AI advisory group Meta convened in May to offer guidance on "strategic opportunities" in relation to the company's roadmap.
While more than 100 nations wanted to cap plastic production, a handful of oil-producers were prepared only to target waste.
Zuckerberg has been positioning Meta for a potential second Trump presidency, expressing regret over previous content decisions that were unpopular with conservatives and praising Trump's response to an assassination attempt.
Last week, the company elevated prominent Republican policy executive Joel Kaplan to the position of global affairs head.
Meta also donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, in a departure from its past practice.
Meta is giving up on fact-checking and doing it Elon Musk-style
The Facebook parent company's current approach had "just too many mistakes and too much censorship," CEO Mark Zuckerberg said
By William Gavin, Quartz Media
Jan 7, 2025
META is replacing its third-party fact-checking program with the community-driven system popularized by Elon Musk’s X, as the company continues to signal a warmer approach to President-elect Donald Trump.
“We’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X, starting in the U.S,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video early Tuesday. The Facebook parent company’s current system, Zuckerberg added, had “reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.”
Since 2016, Meta has worked with dozens of companies across the world to monitor misinformation on Facebook and attempt to prevent it from getting spread as fact. It began shortly after Trump won his first election. At the time, Facebook was severely criticized for failing to stem the flow of misinformation, including fake news propagated by foreign governments.
Meta’s new program will be available on Threads, Facebook, and Instagram later this year. As it’s rolled out, the current fact-checking structure will be phased out. Its trust and safety team members will be transferred out of California and to Texas and other U.S. locations, the company said.
Like X’s Community Notes, which was launched by the company as Birdwatch back when it was named Twitter, Meta’s system will rely on contributions from users to provide context for posts on its platforms.
The move will likely win some praise from Republican lawmakers who have frequently blasted Meta — and often Zuckerberg himself — for censorship on Facebook and Instagram. Several of Trump’s political appointees have pledged to go after “Big Tech censorship” and defend the freedom of speech.
On Monday, Meta added a handful of new members to its board of directors. They included Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, a staunch Trump ally and Zuckerberg’s friend. Last January, White defended fighters’ right to say “whatever they want” after being asked about Sean Strickland’s past homophobic remarks.
“There is a real opportunity here, with President Trump coming into office, with his commitment to free expression, for us to get back to those values,” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s newly-appointed head of global affairs and top Republican, told Fox News.
Zuckerberg has strived to better his relationship with Trump over the last several months, writing in August that he regretted not pushing back against calls from federal officials to remove COVID-19-related posts from Facebook and Instagram, calling Trump “badass” after an assassination attempt, and declining to endorse a presidential candidate. In November, he met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and recently revealed plans to donate $1 million to his inaugural fund.
Trump wrote in a coffee-table book published in September called Saving America that Zuckerberg plotted against him in the 2020 election. He also said the CEO would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he did it again, according to Politico. He has previously called Facebook “the enemy of the people.”
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