How Mark Zuckerberg pivoted Meta to the right

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday that he was ending professional fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement Tuesday that he was ending professional fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram was the culmination of months of effort to position the social media giant for the conservative pressures of a second Trump administration. 

Zuckerberg, once a supporter of a handful of progressive causes, including fighting mass deportations, who repeatedly met with — and sometimes criticized — Barack Obama during his presidency, began dropping hints last summer that he was preparing to politically lean in on supporting Donald Trump, a maneuver he is now in the process of pulling off. 

The first hints came in July, when Zuckerberg praised Trump’s response to having nearly been assassinated, saying Trump’s raising his fist after the shooting was “one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life.” Zuckerberg at the time tempered the praise, though, saying he would not endorse a presidential candidate. 

Also that month, Meta removed special restrictions it imposed on Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — essentially giving Trump a fresh start on the platforms after it had suspended and then reinstated him. 

Other rightward steps soon followed. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/mark-zuckerberg-pivoted-meta-right-rcna186687

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