Eight ways Mark Zuckerberg changed Meta ahead of Trump’s inauguration

This past week, Mark Zuckerberg set off a rapid reversal of policies — from DEI initiatives at Facebook to recommended political content at Threads and Instagram — and finished the week off with a nearly three-hour interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast. It reads as what some users are calling a transparent attempt at bootlicking as preparation for a new political reality in the U.S. He doesn't seem too fearful of that assumption, either: Just last month, Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund and on Rogan's podcast, released on Friday, he said he's "optimistic" about president-elect Donald Trump because "he just wants America to win."

It was such a busy week for Meta that even the most steadfast Zuckerberg news junkies might have missed some of his transformative decisions. Here's a recap of all the changes a man with the net worth of over $200 billion made to one of the most powerful and influential tech companies in the world just a week before Trump takes office.

Fact checkers are out

Zuckerberg is following in the footsteps of MAGA supporter X's Elon Musk in getting rid of fact checkers in favor of community notes. He announced on Tuesday that "it's time to get back to our roots around free expression" by "simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes." The decision was faced with incredible — albeit expected — backlash from civil and human rights organizations. As Press Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights Nora Benavidez said in a press release, "Content moderation has never been a tool to repress free speech; it is a principle that the platforms themselves developed to promote dialogue and protect truth for users."

He defended his decision on Rogan's podcast saying he employed fact checkers who "were too biased" and claimed his own company's fact checking process was "something out of 1984." It's a remarkable comparison to a book written by a democratic socialist and member of the anti-Stalinist Left. Makes you think — has Zuckerberg read the book?

Hate speech is in

Meta decided to lift prohibitions against some hate speech on its platforms. Within these new guidelines, Meta platforms will allow users to post content that calls women property, refers to specific ethnic groups as "filth," and claims that gay and trans people are "mentally ill," despite the APA declaring 52 years ago that homosexuality is not a mental illness, for instance. Users can liken protected characteristics including "race, ethnicity, national origin, disability, religious affiliation, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender identity, and serious disease" to inanimate objects, property, and diseases. The platform also won't take action against posts that argue in favor of gender and sexual orientation-based discrimination.

"We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality and common non-serious usage of words like 'weird,'" Meta wrote. A spokesperson told CNN in a statement that Meta will still prohibit some slurs and attacks and will enforce its remaining bullying, harassment, and violence policies.

DEI initiatives are out

For some reason, Zuckerberg decided to get end its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, according an internal memo obtained by Axios on Friday. Janelle Gale, Meta's vice president of human resources, wrote the memo and said Meta would still assemble "cognitively diverse teams, with differences in knowledge, skills, political views, backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences" but it will no longer offer equity and inclusion training. As the New York Times reported, the company "eliminated its chief diversity officer role, ended its diversity hiring goals that called for the employment of a certain number of women and minorities, and said it would no longer prioritize minority-owned businesses when hiring vendors."

"The legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing. The Supreme Court of the United States has recently made decisions signaling a shift in how courts will approach DEI," the memo reads, according to Axios. "It reaffirms longstanding principles that discrimination should not be tolerated or promoted on the basis of inherent characteristics. The term 'DEI' has also become charged, in part because it is understood by some as a practice that suggests preferential treatment of some groups over others."

Tampons are out

According to the New York Times, facilities managers were instructed to remove tampons from men's bathrooms in Meta’s offices in California, Texas and New York. Meta previously provided this for nonbinary and transgender employees who use the men's room. As Katie Notopoulos, a tech reporter for Business Insider, wrote on Bluesky, it's a clear attempt at virtue signaling.

"Probably only ever used by a handful of employees, but work for the facilities team to have to remove," she wrote. "Like, it took physical labor and coordination across 3 offices to do this."

Trans and nonbinary Messenger themes are out

Speaking of virtue signaling, Meta also deleted trans and nonbinary themes on its Messenger app this week, 404 Media first reported. These themes are a fun way to decorate your chats — a "love" them turns it pink, for instance. The trans and nonbinary themes turned the colors of the chats to match the trans or nonbinary pride flags. It's difficult to conjure up a reason these might have been disabled beyond an attempt to match its other new anti-LGBTQ policies.

Political speech on Instagram and Threads is in

Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram and Threads, announced on Thursday that the platforms will be recommending political content to users once again. You can adjust your political content control to less, standard, and more, but the default will be standard. While some users are glad to have politics back on the platform, they are concerned about the timing with the removal of fact-checkers. It is a stark reversal from its March 2024 approach to distancing itself from political content.

"Our intention is to introduce political recommendations in a responsible and personalized way, which means more for people who want this content and less for those who do not," Mosseri posted on Threads about the decision. "Our plan is to continue to listen to feedback, learn, and iterate over the next few months."

Dana White is in

On Monday, Meta announced that Dana White, the famous Trump ally and president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, would join its board of directors — yet another move that the Washington Post noted "could be seen as Zuckerberg's latest maneuver to improve ties with Trump." White was added alongside John Elkann, the billionaire CEO of the investment company Exor and Executive Chair of Ferrari and Stellantis, and Charlie Songhurst, a tech investor. The announcement comes a week after Nick Clegg, the former Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK, announced he would leave his post as Meta's policy chief.