Zuckerberg's rightward policy shift puts Meta staffers on edge, targets Apple
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's actions to curry favor with the president have rattled employees, but people familiar with his efforts say there's a clear strategy.
Mark Zuckerberg kicked off 2025 with an Instagram video that outlined his vision for what he called restoring "free expression" to Meta's platforms and for working with President Donald Trump to push back on governments Zuckerberg said have gone after American companies and stifled innovation.
What Zuckerberg didn't say in his five-minute monologue was that Meta would use its own internal moderators to censor employee criticism of his plan. He also didn't say that by cozying up to the new president, his company might be able to shift Trump's ire in the direction of Meta's loathed rival Apple.
For Meta's staff of almost 75,000 people, the singular power of its 40-year-old founder and CEO is more evident than ever in the company's rightward shift since Trump's election victory in November and inauguration in January.
On Feb. 6, Zuckerberg visited the White House in order "to discuss how Meta can help the administration defend and advance American tech leadership abroad," Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on X.