Meta is parting ways with its employees

For some time now, the leaders of major tech companies have been openly—and at times surprisingly—aligning themselves with the administration of Donald Trump. The alignment with the vision of the new President of the United States seems to have a clear objective: on one hand, to prevent certain political decisions from having negative repercussions on big techs, such as a possible tightening of competition regulations; on the other hand, to gain advantages from measures that Trump is likely to introduce in various sectors. This is not an obvious move, given that many prominent entrepreneurs—from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg—have had difficult relations with the newly elected president in the past. Trump, for instance, has frequently attacked major platforms, accusing them of encouraging an overly strict form of content moderation against users with conservative views. Among the companies most criticized by the Republican leader was Meta itself. However, recently, Zuckerberg has been among those who have made the most effort to get into the president-elect's good graces. The Facebook founder even admitted that he regrets some of his past stances on content management and stated that he has not always considered the removal of certain COVID-19-related posts to be appropriate.

For this reason, Zuckerberg's recent decision to make substantial changes to Meta's content moderation policies has not surprised experts. The most significant change concerns the elimination of a program aimed at limiting the spread of fake news on the company's social networks. Introduced in 2016, the project involved working with journalistic organizations and independent fact-checkers to verify the accuracy of certain news. From now on, however, Meta will use tools similar to those employed by X, where misinformation has long been widespread—something that has led many users and organizations to leave the platform. Zuckerberg stated that he made this decision to better protect freedom of expression, but many believe the move is primarily an attempt to align with the rhetoric of the new U.S. president. The New York Times described the situation as “a clear signal of how the company is repositioning itself in light of the Trump administration.” The recent appointment of Joel Kaplan, a Meta executive with ties to the Republican Party, as the company's new global policy head, along with the addition of Dana White—also closely linked to Trump—to the board of directors, further fuels these suspicions.

How Meta Employees Are Responding

Recently, Zuckerberg, in a communication to Meta employees, defended the company's growing closeness to the White House. "I want to be clear, after many years, we now have the opportunity to have a productive partnership with the U.S. government. We will seize it," said the Facebook founder, calling the company's strategy "the right one." "The government can actively oppose you, trying to be an obstacle and creating friction, or it can try to help you by removing obstacles." Demonstrating that many Meta employees do not agree with the company's repositioning, Zuckerberg's private statements were immediately leaked to the U.S. press and subsequently picked up by numerous media outlets worldwide. Needless to say, the company was not pleased, especially since, until recently, Zuckerberg's newfound sympathy for Trump was subtle, whereas now it is evident from his words. Meta has stated that those responsible for the leak will be fired. However, cases like this have been increasing ever since the company started "cozying up" to the White House, and it is possible that the growing number of leaks from employees is a way to express disapproval of Meta's leadership choices.