Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is increasingly hostile to government regulation and skeptical of social justice, sources familiar told The New York Times on Tuesday.
People who have spoken with Zuckerberg recently say that his beliefs now most align with libertarianism or “classical liberalism,” and that the tech mogul has made moves to clamp down on left-wing activism within Meta, according to the NYT. Zuckerberg’s ideological trajectory tracks with a broader rightward shift occurring in the upper echelons of Silicon Valley, with many tech executives who have previously supported Democrats now throwing money behind former President Donald Trump.
Zuckerberg is also attempting to mend his relationship with Trump, with the two sharing a cordial phone call and the president expressing gratitude for the tech CEO’s kind words following the attempt on his life, according to the NYT.
“Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg said following the attempted assassination in June. “On some level as an American, it’s like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”
Trump claimed in an interview with New York Magazine that Zuckerberg told him he wouldn’t vote for a Democrat in November, though a Meta spokesperson said that Zuckerberg “has not communicated to anybody how he intends to vote.” Zuckerberg personally called Trump after Meta incorrectly took down images of the assassination attempt to apologize, according to the NYT.
Zuckerberg has expressed remorse for past actions some have characterized as liberal, saying that Meta’s censorship during the COVID-19 pandemic “undermine[d] trust.” He also confirmed that the Biden-Harris administration leaned on Facebook to censor content and said he regretted complying.
In 2022, Zuckerberg supported changes to Meta’s internal policies that prohibited employees from talking about abortion or racial justice movements in the workplace, sources familiar told the NYT.
Other big names in tech have shifted rightward this election cycle, with venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya organizing a high-dollar fundraiser for Trump in June and raising over $12 million for the former president. Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal and prolific tech investor Shervin Pishevar were among the attendees at the sold-out San Francisco fundraiser.
“In 2016, the number of people from Silicon Valley I knew who supported Trump was a sample of one, which was Peter [Thiel],” Jacob Helberg, a senior adviser to Palantir, told Reuters. “Today I count them in the dozens, if not more than that. Over the course of the past six months, we’ve started to see the dam break,” he continued.
Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, cryptocurrency entrepreneurs famous for their dispute with Zuckerberg over the founding of Facebook, have also made considerable donations to Trump and other conservatives, campaign finance records show.
“It’s not surprising then that tech titans feel some camaraderie with Mr. Trump, who portrays himself as a savior and a martyr,” Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes wrote for the NYT on Wednesday. “Like them, he doesn’t want to have to play by the rules or entertain challenges to his vision for a ‘better’ America.”
Representatives for Zuckerberg did not return the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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