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‘Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Sprint to Remake Meta for the Trump Era’

Mike Isaac, Sheera Frenkel, and Kate Conger, reporting for the NYT in the best-sourced piece I’ve seen on Meta’s big policy changes this week (gift link):

The entire process was highly unusual. Meta typically alters
policies that govern its apps — which include Facebook,
Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads — by inviting employees, civic
leaders and others to weigh in. Any shifts generally take months.
But Mr. Zuckerberg turned this latest effort into a closely held
six-week sprint, blindsiding even employees on his policy and
integrity teams.

Months-long processes with a large number of stakeholders from inside and outside the company are the way you make policy changes intended to be as uncontroversial as possible. A six-week sprint with a tight team is how you make policy changes that you know will be controversial. The process was unusual because the nature of the changes was unusual.

In interviews, more than a dozen current and former Meta
employees, executives and advisers to Mr. Zuckerberg described his
shift as serving a dual purpose. It positions Meta for the
political landscape of the moment, with conservative power
ascendant in Washington as Mr. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. More
than that, the changes reflect Mr. Zuckerberg’s personal views of
how his $1.5 trillion company should be run — and he no longer
wants to keep those views quiet.

This rings true to my ears, and my take on Zuckerberg. But they run counter to the Times’s headline for the story, which paints alignment with Trump as the primary motivation. I think it’s pretty clear that aligning with Trump is just the cover for Zuckerberg putting Meta’s content moderation policies back where he feels they should always have been. Zuck’s not rightwing but he’s not anti-right-wing. But for a large swath of the left today, anyone who’s not anti-right-wing is right-wing. Zuck is done trying to placate those of that mindset.

At Meta, Mr. Zuckerberg began preparing to change speech policies.
Knowing that any moves would be contentious, he assembled a team
of no more than a dozen close advisers and lieutenants, including
Joel Kaplan, a longtime policy executive with strong ties to the
Republican Party; Kevin Martin, the head of U.S. policy; and David
Ginsberg, the head of communications. Mr. Zuckerberg insisted on
no leaks, the people with knowledge of the effort said.

And give them credit — not a whisper regarding these changes leaked in advance of Zuckerberg dropping them in his Instagram video. Meta announced these changes on their own terms, in their own way.

Some employees were livid at what they saw as efforts by
executives to hide changes to the “Hateful Conduct” policy before
it was announced, two people said. While people across the policy
division typically view and comment on significant revisions, most
did not have the opportunity this time.

Some employees were surprised, after years of working a company run by a face-eating founder who owns a controlling share of the company’s stock and thus answers to no one but himself, to find their own faces eaten off.

 ★ 

Mike Isaac, Sheera Frenkel, and Kate Conger, reporting for the NYT in the best-sourced piece I’ve seen on Meta’s big policy changes this week (gift link):

The entire process was highly unusual. Meta typically alters
policies that govern its apps — which include Facebook,
Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads — by inviting employees, civic
leaders and others to weigh in. Any shifts generally take months.
But Mr. Zuckerberg turned this latest effort into a closely held
six-week sprint, blindsiding even employees on his policy and
integrity teams.

Months-long processes with a large number of stakeholders from inside and outside the company are the way you make policy changes intended to be as uncontroversial as possible. A six-week sprint with a tight team is how you make policy changes that you know will be controversial. The process was unusual because the nature of the changes was unusual.

In interviews, more than a dozen current and former Meta
employees, executives and advisers to Mr. Zuckerberg described his
shift as serving a dual purpose. It positions Meta for the
political landscape of the moment, with conservative power
ascendant in Washington as Mr. Trump takes office on Jan. 20. More
than that, the changes reflect Mr. Zuckerberg’s personal views of
how his $1.5 trillion company should be run — and he no longer
wants to keep those views quiet.

This rings true to my ears, and my take on Zuckerberg. But they run counter to the Times’s headline for the story, which paints alignment with Trump as the primary motivation. I think it’s pretty clear that aligning with Trump is just the cover for Zuckerberg putting Meta’s content moderation policies back where he feels they should always have been. Zuck’s not rightwing but he’s not anti-right-wing. But for a large swath of the left today, anyone who’s not anti-right-wing is right-wing. Zuck is done trying to placate those of that mindset.

At Meta, Mr. Zuckerberg began preparing to change speech policies.
Knowing that any moves would be contentious, he assembled a team
of no more than a dozen close advisers and lieutenants, including
Joel Kaplan, a longtime policy executive with strong ties to the
Republican Party; Kevin Martin, the head of U.S. policy; and David
Ginsberg, the head of communications. Mr. Zuckerberg insisted on
no leaks, the people with knowledge of the effort said.

And give them credit — not a whisper regarding these changes leaked in advance of Zuckerberg dropping them in his Instagram video. Meta announced these changes on their own terms, in their own way.

Some employees were livid at what they saw as efforts by
executives to hide changes to the “Hateful Conduct” policy before
it was announced, two people said. While people across the policy
division typically view and comment on significant revisions, most
did not have the opportunity this time.

Some employees were surprised, after years of working a company run by a face-eating founder who owns a controlling share of the company’s stock and thus answers to no one but himself, to find their own faces eaten off.

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