Meta Goes MAGA

The mainstream media is aghast over Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's alleged MAGA makeover. Since announcing, last week, that Meta's social media platforms -- Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp -- are loosening their speech restrictions, media critics have branded the billionaire a tech bro traitor. Describing Zuckerberg's "sprint to remake Meta for the Trump era," the New York Times reports that the tech titan only "decided to make sweeping changes after visiting President-elect Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago over Thanksgiving." Cable business news channel CNBC claims Zuckerberg "had to bend the knee to Trump." A columnist at the Financial Times objects to the "optics" of "pleasing the soon-to-be-resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave."

Meta Goes MAGA
Illustration: Lev Kaplan

But, as Zuckerberg explained last Friday to star podcaster Joe Rogan, he calculates that the European Union has fined tech companies $30 billion in fines over the last "ten to twenty years." Comparing the gargantuan levies to "tariffs," Zuckerberg argues, "If some other country was screwing around with some other industry that we cared about, the US would probably find some way to put pressure on them." The Biden administration, however, "was actually the complete opposite. The US government led the attack against the companies." Deploying more MAGA-flavored bait, Zuckerberg enthuses, "One of the things that I'm optimistic about with President Trump is I think he just wants America to win." Clearly, Meta is angling for a mega global deal.