'Ploy to avoid being regulated': GOP senator and MAGA podcaster rip Zuckerberg’s pro-Trump turn

11 January

Tech CEOs have lined up to show fealty to President-elect Donald Trump by showering his inaugural committee with $1 million donations. But their obeisance isn't convincing some of Trump's diehard supporters.

The Washington Post reported Saturday on the tech industry's about-face from almost unilaterally backing Democrats to giving large sums to Trump. Silicon Valley cornerstones like Meta (the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp and Threads), Google, Amazon and others have all lined up to pay respects to the incoming administration with seven-figure donations despite only giving a fraction of that amount to President Joe Biden's inauguration.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in particular has been subjected to criticism over his decision to stop fact-checking content posted to Facebook, suspend diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, allow users to get away with saying LGBTQ+ people are mentally ill and for putting Republican lobbyist Joel Kaplan in charge of global affairs. Zuckerberg also appointed UFC owner Dana White — a prominent Trump supporter — to Meta's board of directors (Zuckerberg is a practitioner of mixed martial arts and tore his ACL while sparring in 2023).

Zuckerberg's decision to stop moderating content is provoking fears of Facebook taking a sharp turn to the right, as X did after billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk purchased the platform formerly known as Twitter. Intercept tech reporter Sam Biddle posted to Bluesky that he obtained a leaked internal Meta document that examples of posts that are now considered acceptable. This reportedly includes "calling children 'trannies,' 'Jews are flat out greedier than Christians,' and 'immigrants are grubby, filthy pieces of s—.'"

"[Meta's] document also provides ample examples of newly permissible insults aimed at specific gender identities or sexual orientations, including 'Gay people are sinners' and 'Trans people are immoral,'" Biddle wrote in his report. "A post stating 'Lesbians are so stupid' would remain prohibited as a 'mental insult,' though 'Trans people are mentally ill' is marked as allowed."

However, progressives aren't the only ones angry with Zuckerberg. In a post to her official X account, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said she was suspicious about Zuckerberg's true motivation after he announced the changes to Meta.

"Now that President Trump is about to take office, Meta has allegedly decided to stop censoring conservatives," Blackburn tweeted. "This is a ploy to avoid being regulated. We will not be fooled."

Podcaster Candace Owens also cast doubt on Zuckerberg's new embrace of right-wing politics. The Post reported that Owens was skeptical of the tech CEO who once suspended Trump's account after the January 6 insurrection and banned accounts that propagated election denialism.

"Now he believes in free speech because of the election results?" Owens said.

In a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg expanded on his pro-MAGA shift. He complained that Biden administration officials would 'curse' and 'scream' at him in conversations about content moderation, though Techdirt reporter Mike Masnick found that the only instance of this happening was in an email from Biden official Rob Flaherty. In that email, Flaherty was referring to a bug on Instagram that prevented people from following Biden's official account, which Meta apologized for and corrected.

Click here to read the Post's article in full (subscription required).

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