Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg met again with Trump administration officials at the White House on Wednesday, a source familiar with the discussions told Reuters.
“Mark is continuing the meetings he’s been holding with the administration on American technology leadership,” Meta spokesman Andy Stone told Reuters, though he did not confirm the White House visit.
Last month, Zuckerberg visited the White House to discuss how the company can support the Trump administration’s efforts to bolster U.S. technological leadership globally. According to Stone, Zuckerberg’s February visit aimed to explore ways in which Meta could assist in defending and advancing American tech interests abroad.
Newsweek has reached out to Meta and the White House via email on Wednesday evening for comments.
Mark Zuckerberg, Once a Trump Foe, Changed His Tune
Once a Trump critic, the Facebook founder has grown closer to the president in recent months, attending his inauguration and co-hosting an inaugural reception.
Meta Platforms donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. The donation followed a dinner meeting between Zuckerberg and Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in late November 2024, signaling an effort to improve relations between Meta and the incoming administration.
Meta Platforms agreed to pay $25 million in January to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump in 2021. The lawsuit stemmed from Meta’s suspension of Trump’s accounts following the January 6 Capitol riot. As part of the settlement, $22 million is allocated to fund Trump’s presidential library, with the remaining $3 million covering legal fees and other expenses. Notably, Meta did not admit to any wrongdoing in this agreement.
This settlement is viewed as Meta’s effort to improve relations with the Trump administration. It follows a series of similar agreements between tech companies and Trump, including a $15 million settlement by ABC News to resolve a defamation lawsuit. Critics, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, argue that these settlements set a concerning precedent, potentially encouraging frivolous lawsuits against media organizations and leading to a chilling effect on press freedom.
Also in January, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook and Instagram will no longer use fact-checkers. Conservatives, who have long said Meta’s use of fact-checkers shows that it is politically biased, celebrated Zuckerberg’s move as a victory for “free speech.”
Zuckerberg pointed to the 2024 election and Trump’s defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris as a “cultural tipping point to once again prioritizing speech.”
“After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” he said.
Meta, the world’s largest social media platform, dropped the fact-checkers for a user-generated community notes system similar to that on X (formerly Twitter), which is owned by prominent Trump ally Elon Musk.
Critics of his decision have raised concerns that this could catalyze the spread of misinformation to the more than 3 billion people who use Facebook.
This is a developing news story and will be updated as more information is available.
Reporting by the Associated Press contributed to this story.
Update: 3/12/25, 7:07 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.
Leave a Reply