Zuckerberg shows his true pragmatic colours by changing Meta ahead of Trump 2.0
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The first indication of Mark Zuckerberg's capitulation to the MAGA movement came when he went to Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort for Thanksgiving in December. Following which Meta, worth $1.5tn, made a decidedly modest $1m contribution to president-elect Trump's inaugural fund.
But it seems geeks bearing gifts wouldn't be enough to placate a president-elect who once threatened to jail the man he called "Zuckerschmuck," whom he accused of conspiring against him in the 2020 election. Trump news conference - as it happened:President-elect calls for huge increase in NATO defence spending.
And Meta's latest move to shift content moderation on its platforms - Facebook, Instagram and Threads - away from third-party fact-checking, might not be its final move to build bridges with the incoming administration. Why the change of tune? The obvious answer is that Mark Zuckerberg is, first and foremost, a businessman.
The days of big tech companies effectively doing what they like without political interference are coming to an end. This year Meta faces an antitrust trial and there are moves to revise legislation that effectively protects social media firms from liability for the content they publish.
They, and Silicon Valley's other tech titans, will need all the friends they can get in Washington. Little wonder Amazon and Open AI also sent the president-elect $1m each in December. But there may be a personal aspect to it as well. Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News.
