Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with former President Donald Trump just one day before announcing a major policy shift that would end fact-checking protocols on his social media platforms, according to a Republican senator. The revelation comes as Meta faces mounting scrutiny over its business practices and political maneuvering, including an ongoing antitrust lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), speaking during an interview with Benny Johnson, disclosed that Zuckerberg had met with Trump on multiple occasions, including the day before the tech executive announced the pivot to a “community notes” model of content moderation.
“Mark met with President Trump the day before he announced that they were going to change the way that they do censorship, essentially,” Mullin said. “The big announcement that he made the other day, President Trump, and spoke about that, and Mark had been down to see the president several times already.”
The timing of the meeting has raised questions about whether Zuckerberg’s decision to abandon fact-checking was influenced by his discussions with Trump. The move has been widely interpreted as an effort to appease conservative critics who have long accused Meta’s platforms of bias against right-leaning voices.
