In a broad demand and answer session with meta-employees on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of the company, defended recent changes he had made to solve limitations on online speech and end diversity initiatives, and doubled the new embrace From President Trump's new administration.
“I want to be clear, after recent years we now have the chance to have a productive partnership with the US government,” Mr. Zuckerberg said, according to a recording of the meeting that is shared with the New York Times. “We are going to take that.”
Mr. Zuckerberg, 40, said it was “fundamental” for Meta – the world's largest social media company with Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp – to be better with governments around the world.
“The government can be a bit active against you, try to stand in the way and add a lot of friction, or can actively try to help you to help you,” he said. “It's the right thing to do.”
In the hourly meeting with meta's more than 70,000 employees, Mr. Zuckerberg also said that 2025 would be an important year for possibly transforming initiatives of Meta's activities, including focusing on artificial intelligence, data centers and the compelling world of metaverse.
Mr. Zuckerberg's comments meant his tight grip over Meta because he made the company for the Trump era again, for the consternation of some of his employees. This month, Mr. Zuckerberg announced radical changes to reduce the limitations of the meta by speech, a termination of a facts control program and killed diversity efforts in the workplace. He also showed up for the inauguration of President Trump and criticized the government of former President Biden because he was anti-tech.
In Meta, Mr Zuckerberg has retained in recent years on the different opinion of employees, also by prohibiting workplace discussions about certain controversial social and political issues.
Some employees have pushed back the changes, such as removing tampons from the men's bathrooms at the company, which were provided for transgender and non -binary employees. As on Thursday, some employees circulated a registration form for employees to buy sanitary products and bring them to the offices of Meta in a protest protest, two people who saw the form.
A Meta spokesperson refused to comment. Business Insider previously reported on parts of Mr. Zuckerberg's conversation.
During the meeting, Mr. Zuckerberg said that some of meta's changes – such as eliminating many of the Dei teams – was a reflection of that time.
“We are in the middle of a fairly quickly changing policy and regulatory landscape that regards every policy that a group of people can promote above another as something that is illegal,” he said. “That's why we and every other institution have to adjust.”
Mr. Zuckerberg said he personally believed that Meta had a “good state of service” about diversity and that having a diverse workforce was a force.
Janelle Gale, Meta Head of people, said during the meeting that there were other types of discrimination that were not generally recognized at meta but still had to be tackled. The company has fired women for sexual harassment, she said, and some people were excluded because of their political views.
Mr. Zuckerberg said that Meta brought back a form of his unconscious bias training that would not only concentrate on 'a few different groups'.
Some employees were upset that the format of the meeting had changed. For years, employees voted about what questions they should ask Mr Zuckerberg. Those who received the most votes were asked.
This time that did not happen. A Zijchat room where employees used to respond to the live presentation was also removed, said two people who attended the call.
Mr. Zuckerberg said that the changes in the meeting were intentional due to an increasing number of leaks in recent years.
“I think there are a lot of things that destroy value that I am not going to talk about,” he said, referring to the types of questions that have become public. “Perhaps it is the nature of running a group of this scale. But it's a bit of a bummer. “
After the meeting, Meta sent an internal message that stated that employees would be terminated if they spoke to the media, said two people who received the memo.
During the call, Mr. Zuckerberg also remarked the uncertainty around Tiktok, the video app in Chinese that is forbidden in the United States under a federal law that came into force this month. President Trump has signed an executive order to pause the ban.
Tiktok was one of the 'most important competitors' of Meta, Mr. Zuckerberg said, adding that he kept a close eye on developments.
Employees asked Mr. Zuckerberg about whether the rise of Deepseek, a Chinese AI-start-up that produced an advanced AI model for a fraction of the costs of many other companies, raised questions about the rising editions of Meta to data centers.
Mr. Zuckerberg said Deepseek would help the open-source strategy of Meta around AI, including the freely sharing of code so that other companies can build apps and continue to improve technology. Some technological progress of Deepseek have already contributed to improving Meta AI models, he said.
But expenditure on data centers – who offers computing power for AI preface – would still be a competitive advantage for Meta, Mr. Zuckerberg said.
“This year feels a bit more like a sprint for me,” he said. “It's going to be a crazy year.”
Kate Conger And Sheera Frenkel contributed reporting.
