Technology
Zuckerberg’s rightward coverage shift places Meta staffers on edge, goals Apple
Priscilla Chan, left, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Lauren Sanchez are amongst visitors attending Donald Trump’s settingup because the forty seventh U.S. president within the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2025.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Photographs
Mark Zuckerberg kicked off 2025 with an Instagram video that defined his seeing for what he referred to as restoring “free expression” to Meta‘s platforms and for running with President Donald Trump to thrust back on governments Zuckerberg mentioned have long past then American firms and stifled innovation.
What Zuckerberg didn’t say in his five-minute monologue was once that Meta would utility its personal interior moderators to censor worker complaint of his plan. He additionally didn’t say that through cozying as much as the pristine president, his corporate may be able to shift Trump’s ire within the course of Meta’s loathed rival Apple.
For Meta’s team of workers of just about 75,000 family, the singular energy of its 40-year-old founder and CEO is extra perceptible than ever within the corporate’s rightward shift since Trump’s election victory in November and settingup in January.
On Feb. 6, Zuckerberg visited the White Space to deliver “to discuss how Meta can help the administration defend and advance American tech leadership abroad,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone mentioned in a post on X.
In keeping with interviews with over a lot tide and previous workers who requested to not be named to deliver to talk candidly on what they see going down within the corporate, there’s a profound sense of suspicion as to how Meta’s tradition will exchange within the coming years of Trump’s 2nd presidency.
At headquarters in Silicon Valley, tensions are palpable as Meta is going thru its unedited spherical of activity cuts. In January, the corporate introduced plans to put off its lowest performers, or 5% of its general personnel, and started the cuts this month.
Meta has been looking to thwart pushback from workers through censoring complaint inside of its Place of business in-house social community, family ordinary with the topic mentioned. Workers who left feedback that control considered as destructive on Place of business had been instructed that their statements can be impaired in efficiency opinions, doubtlessly affecting their office, they mentioned.
Resources additionally instructed CNBC that workers who would possibly another way release on account of their disillusionment with coverage adjustments are all for quitting now on account of how they are going to be perceived through pace employers for the reason that Meta has mentioned publicly that it’s hunting down “low performers.”
Meta, like lots of its tech friends, started downsizing in 2022 and has endured to cut across the edges. The corporate shorten 21,000 jobs, or just about 1 / 4 of its personnel, in 2022 and 2023. Amongst those that misplaced their jobs had been individuals of the civic integrity team, which was once identified to be outspoken in its complaint of Zuckerberg’s management.
Some heavy adjustments are actually taking playground that seem to without delay apply the top of Trump on the expense of corporate workers and customers of the platforms, the family ordinary with the topic mentioned.
Maximum significantly, Meta lately ended its variety, fairness and inclusion program and at ease content-moderation pointers, each boxes that Trump has attacked in his conflict on “woke policies.”
When Meta filed its annual report with the Securities and Trade Fee in overdue January, the record famous its drastic shifts, list them within the division about industry dangers.
“In January 2025, we announced certain changes to our content policies and enforcement efforts to further free expression on our platform and mitigate over-enforcement of certain of our content policies,” Meta mentioned. “If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brands, our ability to maintain or expand our base of users, marketers, and developers may be impaired, and our business and financial results may be harmed.”
Meta declined to remark.
Taking attempt at Apple
Zuckerberg is prepared to tackle such dangers on account of the possible advantages that include smoothing his courting with Trump, the family ordinary with the topic mentioned. Against this to Meta’s earlier process of advocating for a good taking part in ground around the tech business, Zuckerberg now sees alternatives to achieve a strategic benefit for his corporate, the family mentioned.
But more than AI and Musk, Zuckerberg is looking for a leg up on Apple, the people said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, center left, attends Apple’s iPhone 16 launch in New York City, Sept. 20, 2024.
Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images
Zuckerberg hopes that Meta’s improved relationship with the White House could help put pressure on the iPhone maker, after a yearslong battle between the two tech heavyweights. Both companies were targets of antitrust suits from the U.S. government.
The Meta founder is still upset about Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy update, which made it harder for Meta to track users across the internet and which put a $10 billion dent in the company’s 2022 advertising revenue. Internally, this period has come to be known among some Meta employees as “the Tim Cook recession.”
Many app developers, including Spotify and Epic Games, have battled Apple either in public or in court over the company’s app store rules and control over its ecosystem. Zuckerberg has been one of the loudest critics of Apple in the past, but he has become even more antagonistic toward the company in recent public interviews. Sources told CNBC that it’s all part of an effort to shift antitrust scrutiny off Meta and onto Apple.
In a January interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg claimed that Apple is becoming less innovative and that it’s putting resources toward preventing third parties from creating hardware peripherals that integrate smoothly into Apple’s mobile operating system.
“They build stuff like Air Pods, which are cool, but they’ve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way,” Zuckerberg said.
Meta’s business has recovered from its downdraft that followed the iOS changes, due mostly to the company’s investments in AI and the new capabilities they’ve provided to advertisers. In January, the company reported $160.6 billion in advertising revenue for 2024, up nearly 40% from 2021. The company’s shares have been on a huge upswing since a brutal 2022, quadrupling over the past two years and closing at a record $728.56 on Thursday.
Zuckerberg told Rogan that Meta’s profit would double if Apple stopped applying “random rules” that tax his company.
Meta’s actions against Apple aren’t limited to the U.S. In one of the company’s first steps this year to apply more policy pressure on Apple, Meta filed a complaint in opposition to the iPhone maker in overdue January with Brazil’s festival regulator, the Administrative Council for Financial Protection.
Within the criticism, Meta alleged that Apple’s iOS replace unfairly singles out third-party apps however no longer its personal. Meta has been making an allowance for an antitrust criticism in opposition to Apple in Brazil since ultimate yr, a supply ordinary with the topic mentioned.
Apple and X didn’t reply to demands for remark.
Fb CEO Mark Zuckerberg, proper, and Joel Kaplan, the corporate’s vp of worldwide people coverage, release the Elysee Palace in Paris then a gathering with French President Emmanuel Macron, Would possibly 23, 2018.
Aurelien Morissard | IP3 | Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
No longer afraid to ruffle some feathers
Important Meta’s pristine coverage rate is Joel Kaplan, a former White Space deputy eminent of team of workers beneath former President George W. Bush with longstanding ties to the Republican Birthday celebration.
Other notable Republicans at Meta include Vice President of Global Public Policy Kevin Martin, a former Federal Communications Commission chairman under President George W. Bush, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead, whom Trump previously appointed as a legal advisor at the State Department.
Kaplan’s ascendency at Meta coupled with the company’s policy changes has solidified a political shift to the right, multiple sources said.
Since joining Meta in 2011 as a policy vice president, Kaplan has built a reputation as an executive who takes calculated risks even if it means upsetting some people internally, the people said.
In 2018, Kaplan made headlines for attending Brett Kavanaugh’s highly contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearing as a personal friend. His appearance caused so much controversy that Meta was forced to address the matter in a statement, saying the “leadership team recognizes that they’ve made mistakes handling the events of the last week and we’re grateful for all the feedback from our employees.”
What may have been a problem for Kaplan at the time is now viewed as a strength. That’s because the executive is seen as an ally to the Republicans in charge, the people said.
Clegg, by contrast, represented a more center-left position, they said. He was vocal in his support of banning Trump from Facebook’s platform after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, while Kaplan was noticeably more reluctant about such a move, a person familiar with the matter said. Kaplan has also favored less strict content moderation policies, the person said.
Meta in January agreed to pay $25 million as part of a settlement with Trump over the company’s decision to suspend his accounts following the Capitol riot. In January 2023, Meta said it was reinstating Trump on its platform after the two-year suspension.
The company’s efforts to win favor with Trump seem to be working, at least based on what the president has publicly said.
After Kaplan announced Meta’s primary content-moderation and homogeneous coverage shifts in early January on “Fox and Friends,” Trump looked to be inspired.
“Honestly, I think they’ve come a long way. Meta, Facebook, I think they’ve come a long way,” Trump instructed journalists all the way through a Jan. 7 press convention. About Kaplan, Trump mentioned, “The man was very impressive.”
— CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this file.
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