Mark Zuckerberg seems to be getting better at politics.
Zuckerberg and his company Meta Platforms (META) have been a political punching bag for years from both the left and right-wing political parties in the U.S.
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During the first President Donald Trump administration from 2017 to 2020, Meta was raked over the coals for allowing Russian operatives to run influencer campaigns on the platform that were pro-Trump and anti his opponent Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign season.
Then, during Covid, Meta was attacked by Republicans for restricting free speech and engaging in censorship of ideas.
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After receiving beatings from both sides of the aisle over the past two administrations, it seems Zuckerberg and the team at Meta are finally smartening up.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., is working more closely with the White House.
Mark Zuckerberg strengthens ties with the White House
In an August 2024 open letter, Zuckerberg broke his silence about the pressure he had received from President Joe Biden’s administration during the previous four years.
Zuckerberg claimed that officials from the administration “repeatedly pressured” Facebook during the pandemic to remove “certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire.”
“I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it,” Zuckerberg wrote at the time. “I also think we made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today.”
After publicly excoriating the previous administration during the thick of the 2024 campaign season, Zuckerberg made his move to cozy up to the incoming one.
Meta hired Republican political lobbyist Joel Kaplan as its new global policy chief. He’s already made his mark on the company, telling Fox News, “This is a great opportunity for us to reset the balance in favor of free expression.”
Meta also added Dana White, chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a very public ally of Trump, to the company’s board of directors.
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The company also extended the ultimate olive branch, donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund.
Meta looks for a return on its White House investment
Big tech is in big trouble in Europe.
Google is currently fighting a record $4.33 billion EU fine that was levied seven years ago. The European Commission is expected to fine Apple and Meta this week for violating the economic bloc’s Digital Market Act.
But Zuckerberg and Meta are hoping the Trump administration can use the pressure of tariffs to get the EU to go easy on the company, according to new reporting from the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal reports that Meta wants Trump to “respond aggressively” to any fine with the hope that pressure from the U.S. would force the European Commission to “water down” any punishment.
“This is not just about fines—it’s about the Commission seeking to handicap successful American businesses simply because they’re American while letting Chinese and European rivals off the hook,” a Meta spokesperson told the Journal.
More tech news:
Donald Trump sends strong message on inflationApple CEO Tim Cook exposes critical logical flaw in tariff policy
In the past, Trump administration has criticized the Digital Markets Act, saying “The “gatekeepers” designated by the DMA disproportionately capture U.S. firms compared to their EU competitors, and therefore undermine U.S. competitiveness in the European market by increasing the compliance costs on certain U.S. firms while not placing a similar burden on EU competitors.”
Trump is expected to announce a new round of tariffs on April 2. Meta shares were up more than 1% at the time of this writing Tuesday morning.
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