Talk about winning again!
While Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and President Donald Trump are turning a page towards a brighter future, the former is still making amends to the latter.
After all, Facebook, a subsidiary of Meta, was one the most notorious influencers in the 2020 presidential election … chiefly by suffocating the story of Hunter Biden, which intelligence agencies already knew to be true.
On top of that, Facebook also disabled Trump from having a voice on the platform, suspending his access for over two years.
In early 2021, shortly after the January 6 calamity, Zuckerberg believed that the best response was, apparently, to ban Trump.
“We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg declared, shortly after banning Trump in 2021.
Well, that declaration ended up costing Zuckerberg, or at least his company, $25M.
As reported by the Daily Mail, that suspension has now cost Meta a cool $25M, which it has just agreed to pay to Trump as compensation for banning him.
Trump, delighted by the outcome, declared that $22M would be allocated to the presidential library, while the other $3M would be allocated to attorney fees.
Though that is a small price to pay for the tech CEO to finally see the light, which clearly began after Trump survived the assassination attempt.
“On a personal note, 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 bada– things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg remarked, shortly after the shooting in 2024.
At that point in time, Zuckerberg had already been bullied by the Biden administration over censoring COVID information, and it is likely that he began to realize who the real threat to democracy was.
Zuckerberg is also savvy enough to see that the mainstream media has done itself no favors, as revealed in a podcast with Joe Rogan.
“I feel like in retrospect I deferred too much to the kind of critique of the media on what we should do. And since then, I think generally trust in media has fallen off a cliff, right?” Zuckerberg mused during his conversation with Rogan.
As Rogan had openly endorsed Trump, it should come as no surprise that Zuckerberg’s political views have further matured by appearing on a podcast with Rogan in the first place.
In fact, Zuckerberg’s shift in views is not only evident in his abolition of fact checkers and DEI initiatives, but also its updated statement with regards to Trump’s right to self-expression on social media.
“In assessing our responsibility to allow political expression, we believe that the American people should be able to hear from the nominees for President on the same basis,” Meta admitted in an updated 2024 statement.
No kidding!
“As a result, former President Trump, as the nominee of the Republican Party, will no longer be subject to the heightened suspension penalties,” Meta added in the updated statement.
Well, it’s about time.
And that certainly follows through on the intentions that the social media company set in 2023.
At that point in time, it was clear that Facebook began to recognize the importance of not engaging in blind censorship on behalf of the government.
“Social media is rooted in the belief that open debate and the free flow of ideas are important values, especially at a time when they are under threat in many places around the world,” the 2023 statement noted.
“Free flow of ideas.” A deranged Democrat’s nightmare.
“As a general rule, we don’t want to get in the way of open, public and democratic debate on Meta’s platforms – especially in the context of elections in democratic societies like the United States. The public should be able to hear what their politicians are saying – the good, the bad and the ugly – so that they can make informed choices at the ballot box,” the statement added.
Now, with the settlement with Trump, perhaps Meta can make permanent good on its newfound democratic intentions.
Author: Jane Jones
