Meta's pivot to the right sparks boycotts and a user exodus [View all]

Source: NBC News

Jan. 15, 2025, 2:52 PM EST


After Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of changes that shifted the company and its policies to the right ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, some users are fleeing the company’s platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

In the barrage of changes made in recent weeks, the company ended its third-party fact-checking program in the United States and said it would pull back on content moderation around political discourse. Instead, Meta will use a community notes system similar to Elon Musk’s X. Updates to Meta’s policy on hateful conduct include that LGBTQ people can now be called mentally ill because of their identities. Meta also disbanded its diversity, equity and inclusion team.

Zuckerberg isn’t the only Big Tech billionaire currying favor with the incoming president. Musk and Jeff Bezos will both be seated in prominent spots at Trump’s inauguration Monday. But Meta’s changes, along with Zuckerberg’s personal appeals to Trump, have caused a cascade of reactions among its users.

NBC News reviewed hundreds of posts and comments across various social media platforms that said users would delete their Meta accounts, stop posting or boycott the company in response to the changes. The exodus is reminiscent of when X (formerly Twitter) users left the platform in large numbers after the 2024 election.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/meta-boycott-facebook-instagram-users-delete-accounts-policy-changes-rcna187480