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WASHINGTON (TNND) — Leaders in tech haven't exactly been subtle in their attempts to get on President-elect Donald Trump's good side. For no one is that truer than Meta's Mark Zuckerberg.
“It’s one of the things that I’m optimistic about with President Trump is, I think he just wants America to win," Zuckerberg said in a recent interview on an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, whose host endorsed Trump just before Election Day.
On Friday, Zuckerberg was seen leaving his private jet to meet with Trump in Palm Beach, Fla., their second meeting since the election.
VOTE | Do you agree with Mark Zuckerberg's political changes at Meta since the election?
Other moguls like Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates have also made trips to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the incoming president, who told reporters last week, “I think they’ve gained a lot of respect."
"I haven’t had anybody saying anything bad about me. I’m not used to it," Trump said.
Last week, Zuckerberg announced Meta's platforms will terminate its fact-checking feature and replace it with a community notes feature Zuckerberg said is similar to what is found on X, a platform owned by Elon Musk, Trump's self-proclaimed "first buddy."
When Trump was asked if he thinks this was a direct response to threats he made to Zuckerberg in the past, he said "Probably."
For years, Trump and Republicans in Congress, who have accused social media platforms like Zuckerberg's of having a liberal bias, called to end liability protections for tech companies and impose other regulations that would upend how they do business.
Zuckerberg also named Trump's close friend and head of Ultimate Fighting Championship Dana White to Meta's board of directors.
There have been other recent changes at Meta that the company hasn't been as vocal about, like gutting portions of their hateful conduct policy, including a section that had banned users from referring to "women as household objects or property or objects in general; Black people as farm equipment; transgender or non-binary people as 'it.'"
Meta Oversight Board co-chair Michael McConnell recently acknowledged to NPR it appears as if the company is "buckling to political pressure."
"I would have liked to have seen these reforms laid out in you know, in more, in less contentious and partisan times so that they would be considered on the merits rather than looking like this is you know, that Donald Trump is president and now they’re, now they’re caving," McConnell said.
Meta has also terminated many of its diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Axios was the first to report.
“I think a lot of the corporate world is, is like, pretty culturally neutered," Zuckerberg said.
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