Why Meta had to comply with Trump's demands before his inauguration.

• Mark Zuckerberg's declaration that Meta would shift its moderation policies to permit greater "free expression" was broadly perceived as the company's most recent attempt to satisfy Trump.
• As Meta positions itself to lead in artificial intelligence, Zuckerberg recognizes the importance of White House support as his company builds data centers and seeks favorable policies, sources say.
• The layoffs at Meta in 2022 and 2023 affected civic integrity teams, who were more likely to challenge the company's policies.

Mark Zuckerberg's recent announcement that Facebook would modify its moderation policies to permit more "free expression" was broadly perceived as the company's latest attempt to satisfy President-elect Donald Trump.

Since Trump's election victory in November, Meta has made more public amends than any of its Silicon Valley peers.

The four-year feud between Trump and Facebook culminated in Trump's ban from the platform.

In March, Trump referred to Meta's CEO as "Zuckerschmuck" and labeled Facebook as an "enemy of the people."

As Meta positions itself as a major player in artificial intelligence, Zuckerberg recognizes the need for White House support as his company builds data centers and pursues policies that will enable it to achieve its ambitious goals, according to sources who requested anonymity due to not being authorized to discuss the matter.

Despite its immense power, Facebook was forced to submit to Trump, according to Brian Boland, a former Facebook vice president who departed the company in 2020.

Meta declined to comment for this article.

In a Tuesday announcement, Zuckerberg announced that Meta will no longer use third-party fact-checking, remove restrictions on certain topics such as immigration and gender identity, and bring political content back to users' feeds. Zuckerberg justified these changes as necessary to improve Meta's content moderation system, which he claimed had become too error-prone and overly censorship-heavy.

Since Election Day, Meta has shifted its strategy by partnering with Trump and Republicans through a policy change.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Dana White, a longtime friend of Trump and the CEO of UFC, has joined Meta's board.

Last week, Meta announced that Joel Kaplan, its policy vice president, would replace Nick Clegg, its president of global affairs. Clegg had a career in British politics with the Liberal Democrats party, including as a deputy prime minister, while Kaplan was a White House deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush.

Kaplan, who has been with Meta since 2011 and has ties to the Republican Party, worked as a law clerk for the late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. In December, Kaplan shared photos on Facebook of himself with Vice President-elect JD Vance and Trump during their visit to the New York Stock Exchange.

The policy change has sparked criticism from many Meta employees, who fear that the company is shirking its duty to ensure a safe platform. Some employees have expressed concern that marginalized communities may face increased online harassment as a result of the new policy, which will be implemented in the near future.

Although employees have expressed opposition, sources close to the company's decision-making process stated that Meta is more open to making such changes following the layoffs of 21,000 employees, or about a quarter of its workforce, in 2022 and 2023.

The job cuts affected Meta's civic integrity and trust and safety teams, with the civic integrity group being the closest thing the company had to a white-collar union, willing to push back against certain policy decisions. Since the cuts, Zuckerberg faces less friction when making broad policy changes, according to former employees.

In the months before the election, Trump received approaches from Zuckerberg.

In July, following the first assassination attempt on Trump, Zuckerberg described the photo of Trump raising his fist with blood running down his face as "one of the most badass things I've ever seen in my life."

In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, Zuckerberg claimed that the Biden administration had pressured Meta's teams to censor certain Covid-19 content a month earlier.

He wrote that he believed the government pressure was incorrect and regretted not speaking out more about it.

Zuckerberg and other technology executives visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida after his presidential victory, and Meta donated $1 million to his inaugural fund.

Meta announced in a memo obtained by CNBC that it plans to close some of its internal programs focused on diversity and inclusion in its hiring practices, which can be seen as another move aligned with the Trump administration.

The Intercept published details of Meta's new relaxed content-moderation guidelines, revealing the offensive rhetoric that the policy now permits, such as "Migrants are no better than vomit" and "I bet Jorge's the one who stole my backpack after track practice today. Immigrants are all thieves."

Recalibrating for Trump

According to sources, Zuckerberg is seeking to be viewed as someone who can cooperate with Trump and the Republican Party, despite having been summoned to Congress eight times in the past two administrations to testify.

Despite the surprise of Meta's content-policy updates, a group of executives had been planning the policy change in the aftermath of the U.S. election results. By New Year's Day, leadership began announcing the policy change, according to sources.

After significant U.S. elections, Meta undergoes major "recalibrations" to adjust its policies to suit its business and reputational needs based on the political landscape, according to Katie Harbath, a former Facebook policy director and CEO of tech consulting firm Anchor Change.

"In 2028, they'll recalibrate again," she said.

Following the 2016 election and Trump's win, Zuckerberg embarked on a tour of the U.S. to connect with individuals in states he had not previously visited. In response to this, he penned a 6,000-word manifesto that underscored the importance of Facebook in fostering community.

After the 2016 election, the social media company received intense backlash regarding the spread of false information and Russian meddling on its sites.

In 2021, Meta's policy executive stated that the amount of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on the platform was too much, according to their standards. This move may have satisfied the Biden administration, but it angered Republicans.

Meta is once again reacting to the moment, Harbath said.

Harbath stated that there was no business risk in Silicon Valley to be more right-leaning.

Meta has a lot at stake while Trump has not yet presented specific policy proposals for his second term.

The European Union has strict AI regulations, which Meta claims have hindered the company from releasing some of its advanced AI technologies. In contrast, the White House could potentially create more relaxed regulations, allowing Meta and other tech giants to invest in larger data centers and cutting-edge computer chips to improve their AI models.

Harbath stated that there is a business advantage to the Republicans winning, as they are typically less regulatory.

Trump has expressed animosity towards Meta, and the company is taking extreme measures to appease him.

Meta has been accused of censorship by Trump, who is resentful of the two-year suspension of his Facebook and Instagram accounts following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

In July 2024, Trump announced on Truth Social that he planned to pursue election fraudsters with unprecedented intensity, and they would be imprisoned for extended periods. He also warned Zuckerberg to be cautious. In his book "Save America," Trump repeated his statement that Zuckerberg had conspired against him during the 2020 election and that the Meta CEO would face a lifetime of imprisonment if it happened again.

Meta spends $14 million annually on providing personal security for Zuckerberg and his family, as stated in the company's 2024 proxy statement. The company analyzes any perceived threats against its CEO and catalogs, analyzes, and disseminates them to its multitude of security teams.

The source stated that after Trump's remarks, Meta's security teams assessed the potential for Trump to use the Justice Department and the nation's intelligence agencies against Zuckerberg and the cost of defending the CEO against a sitting president.

Meta's efforts to appease the incoming president bring their own risks.

On Tuesday, after Zuckerberg announced the new speech policy, Boland, the former executive, announced on Meta's Threads service that he was quitting Facebook.

"Last post before deleting," Boland wrote in his post.

Meta's content moderation system removed the post before it could be viewed by any of his Threads followers, stating cybersecurity reasons.

In an interview with CNBC, Boland couldn't help but chuckle at the situation.

"It's deeply ironic," Boland said.

— CNBC's Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

Chris Kelly, Facebook's former chief privacy officer, announced that Meta is reinstating its commitment to free speech.