How Mark Zuckerberg is turning out to be one big loser in upcoming Trump's 2.0

With Brendan Carr as FCC chairman, Meta may struggle as he seeks to reform content moderation and Section 230 protections.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta Platforms may actually face huge challenges in Donald Trump’s second term, as Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is poised to take a hardline stance against Big Tech companies accused of limiting conservative voices.

Meta Platforms may face challenges under Donald Trump's second term as FCC chairman Brendan Carr plans to target Big Tech's content moderation.

Trump announced Carr’s appointment on Sunday, naming the current top Republican on the FCC to lead the independent agency that oversees telecommunications.

Carr, an outspoken opponent of Biden’s telecom policies, has long campaigned for a closer look at content moderation policies at companies like Meta. He has called for reevaluating Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides legal protections for tech firms hosting user-generated content.

Carr wrote in the Project 2025 conservative manifesto that the FCC could reinterpret Section 230 to limit the power of Big Tech. Trump has previously suggested leveraging the threat of weaker Section 230 protections to pressure companies to reduce content moderation practices perceived as biased.

“Carr said on Sunday the FCC must ‘restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,’” signalling a strong focus on pushing back against platforms like Meta that have been accused of censoring conservative viewpoints.

Trump is all set to hurt Meta and Google

And Meta is surfacing as one of the biggest losers in the shifting regulatory landscape. Zuckerberg himself has stated before that he supports changing Section 230, claiming that protections ought to be predicated on the presence of systems to address unlawful material. But with Carr at the helm, these updates could come in a package that is far more unpalatable to Meta than what Zuckerberg had in mind.

Notably, tech players like Elon Musk’s Tesla stand to benefit from Trump’s policy agenda. The Trump transition team has indicated that a “federal framework for self-driving cars” will be a priority for the Department of Transportation. This would be a significant win for companies like Tesla and Alphabet’s Waymo, both of which are advancing self-driving technology. Meanwhile, Tesla's stock surged by 5.6% following the news.

Other potential winners include Apple, which may benefit from Trump’s favourable relationship with CEO Tim Cook and could escape antitrust pressures, as Trump may reconsider the Biden administration’s ongoing lawsuit against the company.