What’s Behind Meta’s Makeover Ahead of Trump’s Second Term?

For years, Mark Zuckerberg has tried to keep his social media platforms out of partisan politics.

Why not? Meta’s flagship apps—Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—were themselves bustling nation-states with billions of users, fragile internal politics, skittish advertisers, perpetually aggrieved influencers, and a sprawling, uneven enforcement regime (known as “content moderation”) that had to was to keep the peace.

Given the headaches of running his quasi-government, the last thing Mr. Zuckerberg wanted was to get too caught up in valid governments are ones that can use the force of law to demand it censor certain voices, tip the scales on politically sensitive topics, or threaten to throw Meta executives in jail for non-compliance.

But that was then. Now, on the eve of Trump’s second term, Mr. Zuckerberg is completely changing his MAGA company.

In the process, he also reveals that Meta—a shape-shifting company that has thrown itself into every major technology trend of the last decade, from cryptography to the metaverse, from generative artificial intelligence to wearable computing—has a fundamental void at its core. He’s not entirely sure what it is or where his next phase of growth will come from. But in the meantime, she will embrace the values ​​that Mr. Zuckerberg believes she needs to survive.

The most recent changes began before the election, when Mr. Zuckerberg, whose contributions to election integrity efforts in 2020 led President Donald Trump to threaten him with life imprisonment – called Trump’s recovery from an assassination attempt by a “bully.” But they have accelerated in recent weeks after Mr Trump and Mr Zuckerberg met at Mar-a-Lago mend fences.

Last week Meta’s global policy chief Nick Clegg – a former British deputy prime minister chosen for his centrist bona fides – was replaced by Joel Kaplan, longtime Republican operative who for years acted as Mr. Zuckerberg’s liaison with Trump’s right-wing supporters.

Meta announced the appointment on Monday. three new board membersincluding Dana White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Trump’s close friend and political ally.

And on Tuesday, Mr. Zuckerberg, dressed in $900,000 wristwatch and an atmosphere of strained enthusiasm – an Instagram video announced that Meta fact checking program replacement with an X-style “community notes” feature. The company is also revising its rules to allow more criticism of certain groups, including immigrants and transgender peopleallowing users to see more “civic content” in their feeds and moving content review operations from California to Texas to avoid what it said was the appearance of political bias.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s stated reason for these changes—that Meta realized that its old rules had led to too much censorship and that it should return to its roots as a platform for free expression—was absurd. (For starters: what are the roots? Facebook was inspired by a popular or not Harvard student website, not a white paper from the Cato Institute.)

In fact, Mr. Zuckerberg has changed his views on speech many times. usually in the direction prevailing political winds. And details of the latest changes (a clean list of right-wing speech demands), as well as the way they are being presented (Mr. Kaplan went to Fox and Friends announce them) made it clear what the true purpose was.

The most popular theory about Zuckerberg’s motives is that he is simply doing the politically expedient thing: ingratiating himself with the new Trump administration, thus many Silicon Valley tycoons havein hopes of getting better terms for himself and Meta while Mr. Trump is in office.

Another theory, bolstered by conversations I’ve had with several of Mr. Zuckerberg’s friends and associates in recent months, is that the billionaire’s personal politics have shifted sharply to the right since 2020, and that his embrace of Mr. Trump may be hampered by more than just cynical opportunism as much as real enthusiasm.

I can neither prove nor disprove this theory. Mr. Zuckerberg, unlike Elon Musk, does not broadcast his unfiltered political views dozens of times a day. But I find it plausible. I’ve spent a lot of time studying the right-wing narratives of disaffected liberals, and Mr. Zuckerberg’s recent line fits the bill surprisingly well: A wealthy 40-year-old with a tarnished public reputation is starting to listen to Joe Rogan and develops an interest in mixed martial arts and other hyper-masculine hobbies, becomes irritated by the woke left and angry at the mainstream media, is rebranding like a bad boy and accepts shortcut “classical liberal” while quietly supporting most of the tenets of MAGA conservatism.

In any case, Mr. Zuckerberg clearly studied Mr. Musk’s script. In his video this week announcing changes to Meta, he spoke with apparent disdain of “legacy media” (Mr. Musk’s favorite phrase) and accused his California employees of being politically biased, as Mr. Musk did when he took take over control of Twitter. .

Whatever the reason, the changes represent Meta’s biggest political overhaul since 2016, when it responded to rampant disinformation on Facebook and widespread criticism of its role in Mr. Trump’s election by updating its rules and investing billions of dollars in content moderation.

The list of people affected by Meta’s new rules could be long: immigrants, transgender people, victims of online bullying and harassment, targets of future QAnon-style conspiracy theories, and Facebook and Instagram users who want to see accurate information when they log in. .

But the most unexpected victim may be Zuckerberg himself, who has always been careful not to be cornered by political pressure and will now (at least for the next four years, or until the wind changes again) be judged by his willingness to surrender to the right on speech issues.

He may find that his new allies on the right are more demanding of censorship and less forgiving of his mistakes than the left ever was. (Some right-wing media outlets are already calling on Trump and his allies don’t trust Mr. Zuckerberg’s change of heart.) And the benefits he envisions from getting closer to Trump may not materialize to the extent he hopes. (One complicating factor: Mr. Musk, the president-elect’s chief technology adviser, not his fan.)

Meta’s real problem, however, is that the company still doesn’t know what it is. Is it a provider of legacy (though still profitable) social networking apps? Champion open source artificial intelligence development? Creator of a new generation augmented reality equipment? A way for people to connect with their families and friends? A TikTok-style algorithmic channel filled with professional influencers and AI sucks? Builder of immersive virtual worlds? Something different, weirder?

A political reset could give Zuckerberg some time to answer these questions. But for Meta to succeed after the Trump administration, he will have to do more than just bend the knee.