- Meta announced big changes to kick off the new year, including the end of third-party fact-checking and DEI programs.
- The moves illustrate the latest evolution in Mark Zuckerberg’s leadership.
- You could call it Zuckerberg 3.0 – and it’s coming as Donald Trump takes over.
Mark Zuckerberg has proven himself to be the best shapeshifter in Silicon Valley, and in the first two weeks of 2025, we got our best look yet at the latest version of the Meta CEO.
To kick off the new year, Zuckerberg made some big changes to his company, including waiver of third-party fact-checking and reduction of DEI initiatives.
He appears to be remaking the Meta, which did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, at least in part in the image of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. And he doesn’t seem too concerned about the backlash he’s facing in some quarters, including from the same people who maligned him during the Cambridge Analytica scandal and the 2016 election, or even his own employees at Meta — many of whom who have reacted negatively to him. recent decision to roll back DEI efforts.
His latest moves hint that he is entering a new era, one in which his leadership increasingly reflects Trump’s tastes.
Zuckerberg’s transformation
For years, Zuckerberg was known as an almost robotic presence in Silicon Valley. Some people criticized him for copying ideas instead of innovating, and others maintained his image as a wunderkind wearing a hoodie or too much sunscreen.
However, by the end of 2023, Meta’s CEO had undergone a significant transformation and was receiving praise in business and cultural circles.
Zuck was shredded and winning jiu-jitsu competitions. He went on popular podcasts, like Joe Rogan’s, to discuss his workouts and poke fun at himself.
As a business executive, he acted as the grown-up in the room and led Meta’s “year of efficiency” which turned the company’s stock around.
In 2024, he continued his transformation: He ditched his uniform jeans and hoodie for designer T-shirts and gold chains. And his adoration for his wife Priscilla Chan — as evidenced by gifts like a statue of her, a custom Porsche minivan and his own version of “Get Low” — won him fans.
His newfound pleasure grew into a new kind of courage.
Last fall, he said his biggest regret in two decades running Meta was taking responsibility and apologizing for problems he believed were not Meta’s fault.
The next era of Zuck comes after Trump takes office
Cut to 2025. Zuckerberg now seems to embrace some of the “anti-woke” ideas favored by some political billionaires like Musk, Peter Thiel and, of course, Trump.
While Zuckerberg did not endorse Trump — or Harris — in the 2024 election, he and other tech CEOs were quick to congratulate Trump on his victory. Zuck met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago weeks after the election and, through Meta, donated $1 million to his inaugural committee.
Now, he’s taking what he calls “masculine energy” and putting it to work in Meta.
“Masculine energy, I think is good, and obviously society has enough of that, but I think corporate culture was really trying to get away from it,” he said in an interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast that aired Friday. “It’s like you want feminine energy, you want masculine energy.”
“But I think the corporate culture has moved towards a somewhat more sterilized thing,” he added.
He kicked off the new year by putting UFC CEO and longtime Trump ally Dana White on Meta’s board and replacing the company’s head of policy, liberal Nick Clegg, with former GOP lobbyist Joel Kaplan.
Meta CTO Mark Zuckerberg cheers at a UFC fight. Sean M. Haffey
He then ended third-party fact-checking on Meta platforms, which some conservatives have criticized, in favor of a simpler approach. Like X, Meta will now use “community notes” to allow users to check each other out.
“The last election feels like a cultural tipping point toward, once again, prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said as he announced the changes, implying that the choice was, at least in part, a response to the political landscape.
Meta’s CMO, Alex Schultz, also told BI that Trump’s election influenced the policy change.
The decision has come under scrutiny, with some saying the lack of content moderation opens the door to hate speech.
Under the policy, Meta users can say that members of the LGBTQ+ community are mentally ill for being gay or transgender, for example.
Dozens of fact-checking organizations have signed a letter calling it “a step backwards for those who want to see an Internet that prioritizes accurate and reliable information.”
Still, others, including Musk and Trump, praised the change.
“Honestly, I think they’ve come a long way, Meta, Facebook,” the president-elect said Tuesday.
In Rogan’s latest interview, Zuckerberg said that while some may see the timing of content changes as “purely a political thing,” it’s something he’s been thinking about for a while.
“I feel like I have a much greater command now of what I think politics should be and how it’s going to be, how it’s going to go forward,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg’s recent decision to cut Meta DEI initiatives may also appease conservatives, who have criticized such policies.
While Trump has not commented on the DEI’s decision, he has criticized DEI’s policies in the past.
On Friday, Meta’s vice president of human resources, Janelle Gale, said in an internal memo that the company would no longer have a team focused on DEI or consider diversity in hiring or supplier decisions.
“The legal and political landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing,” she said in a memo.
The decision caused a backlash among some. Inside, about 400 employees reacted with a teary-eyed emoji to the announcement; one called it “disappointing” and another said it was a “backward step,” BI reported Friday.
“Wow, we really capitulated on a lot of our supposed values this week,” commented another staffer, referring to both DEI’s moves and fact-checking.
Others, however, seemed to support the move: 139 employees “liked” the post and 57 responded with a heart emoji.
