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Mark Zuckerberg revisits Mar-a-Lago as Meta advisor reveals why boss ‘caving in to’ Trump: ‘This is buckling to…’
Zuckerberg is currently implementing a sudden policy change that caught employees and users off guard. This move comes ahead of Trump inauguration.
Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, recently met with President-elect Donald Trump for the second time since the election amid the backlash against his alleged MAGA makeover.
Following their meeting at Mar-a-Lago, the internet giant was seen boarding his own plane in Palm Beach, Florida, which was stationed next to Trump's.
Michael McConnell, the co-chair of Meta's monitoring board, said that he was taken aback with the abrupt U-turn and implied that Zuckerberg was “caving in to Trump” by eliminating Facebook fact-checking.
Zuckerberg, whose Meta group regulates Threads, Instagram, and Facebook, is currently implementing a sudden policy change that caught employees and users off guard.
He declared that the fact-checking initiative, which several studies demonstrated decreased the amount of inaccurate data on Meta social networking networks, would be discontinued.
Michael McConnell weighs in on Zuckerberg's decision
On being asked about the modifications, McConnell acknowledged that the optics were “bad.”
“I do think that there's bad optics here, that it looks like and may be even the reality - I don't know,” he said while speaking to NPR.
“But it certainly looks like this is buckling to political pressure. I would have liked to have seen these reforms laid out, you know... in less contentious and partisan times so that they would be considered on the merits.”
He went on to say “they are caving” because President-elect Trump is gearing up to take over the Oval office.
The Meta Oversight Board, which examines content moderation decisions and regulations, is composed of experts in field of human rights, law and journalism.
McConnell said that the board was surprised as it was not notified of Zuckerberg's decision on the fact-checking program. “We did not know that they were going to be revising that standard.”
Did Zuckerberg notify Trump about his decision?
On the other hand, the New York Times reported that Zuckerberg informed Trump's team beforehand about his decision.
Zuckerberg, who dined with the President-elect at Mar-a-Lago following his election win, met with Trump on Friday for the second time ahead of his inauguration. He contributed $1 million to his inauguration.
