- Mark Zuckerberg performed it protected this election — deemphasizing politics on Meta’s platforms.
- Although Donald Trump has mentioned he want to put Zuckerberg in jail, that is extremely unlikely.
Mark Zuckerberg has been burned earlier than. In the elections of 2016 and 2020, Facebook got here below intense scrutiny. (And it is nonetheless occurring: There was a Supreme Court listening to Wednesday over lingering points from the Cambridge Analytica scandal.)
In 2024, Zuckerberg and Meta performed it protected by making an attempt to remain as distant from the election as attainable. No extra elaborate efforts to register voters on Facebook. No extra $400 million donations to get-out-the-vote efforts like in 2020. No extra selling information pages or Facebook Groups that may do issues like arrange a big and harmful rally.
Meta nipped the entire thing within the bud by tamping down information and political content material suggestions throughout Facebook, Threads, and Instagram. Sure, this was no less than partially as a result of consumer suggestions advised them all of us needed much less political content material — however it additionally occurred to be fairly handy for an organization that needed out of the nightmare of steady controversies anyway.
The technique paid off: On Tuesday, there’s little speak of Meta’s function within the election. Zuckerberg’s would-be grappling companion, Elon Musk, did the precise reverse: He went all-in on Trump with each his personal cash and the heft of his social platform. That turned out properly for Musk — however it was a threat.
So Meta made it by the election with out half the nation satisfied that it helped trigger the end result. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg is unlikely to be dragged in entrance of Congress to reply questions on his platform’s perceived bias.
What a Trump administration means for Meta, properly, we’ll see. There are some potential downsides for Big Tech — tariffs may damage components of their companies, for instance. And Meta is already dealing with quite a lot of authorized battles with states. But any attainable outcomes — good or unhealthy — are extra within the realm of regular ups and downs, not existential reckonings or crises. For Meta, it will seemingly be broadly enterprise as typical.
As far as Trump’s menace to jail Zuckerberg? I’ll eat my hat and Trump’s if that truly occurs. It was a part of the rhetoric from Trump grumbling in regards to the 2020 election end result. Now that he is gained in a transparent and decisive means, I feel he’ll transfer on.
And Zuckerberg, like another CEOs, appears to have discovered the best solution to handle Trump: take care of him privately — Zuckerberg met with Trump at an undisclosed dinner in 2019 — and reward him publicly. After the assassination try on Trump in July, Zuckerberg referred to Trump as trying “badass.”
Post by @zuck
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On Wednesday, Zuckerberg continued to play it protected. He posted a message to Threads congratulating Trump on his win. But he was apparently taking part in it actually protected: He did not submit his message till two hours after Jeff Bezos posted a congratulations message of his personal.
