If dropping his woke government-dictated censorship scheme as Charlie writes about nearby wasn't surprising enough news, Facebook/Meta/Instagram's Mark Zuckerberg has done a complete 180º turn and made some equally shocking moves in his front office and boardroom.
Something has awakened the woke tech mogul's conscience. He's actually begun to speak to people who aren't woke.
Zuckerberg announced that UFC CEO Dana White, a huge Donald Trump supporter, is joining his board of directors at the mega social media and AI company.
I love social media. And I’m excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies. @Meta pic.twitter.com/Amh5W728og
— danawhite (@danawhite) January 6, 2025
Also named to the board is Charlie Songhurst, a British former Microsoft executive and McKinsey and Company analyst, who is currently an angel investor for AI start-ups. Another is John Elkann who is CEO of Exor, "one of the largest European investment companies, controlled by the Agnelli family. He is also Executive Chair of Ferrari and Stellantis."
Or, as Axios put it, "Mark Zuckerberg moved further in the direction of MAGA on Monday, when he appointed three white men, including UFC chief executive and Trump friend Dana White, to the board of directors of Meta. [emphasis added]"
Zuckerberg also announced that a former George W. Bush Administration official Joel Kaplan has been elevated to head of global policy at Meta. He's been the deputy in that office at Meta since 2011. He replaces Nick Clegg who before working for Meta was the deputy prime minister of Britain — the scene of frightening censorship activities right now against British subjects.
There are a few things at work here. Silicon Valley tech gazillionaires have embraced Donald Trump because he endorses American supremacy in the battle for artificial intelligence (AI). Trump has promised to fight for U.S. energy independence again for national security and also to sustain the huge drain that AI will put on energy resources.
By contrast, Joe Biden has put the kibosh on increasing U.S. energy self-sufficiency, dooming American national security needs, and American AI dominance.
As Meta board member Mark Andreesen recently pointed out on the Joe Rogan podcast, Biden's administration told AI tech pioneers that they'd better close up shop now because the government was taking over.
🚨MARC ANDREESSEN: "We had meetings with the Biden admin where they told us to not even start AI companies because there's no way they'll let them succeed."
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) November 27, 2024
JOR ROGAN: "What do you do after a meeting like that?"
MARC ANDREESSEN: "You go endorse Donald Trump."
LMAO!!! 😂🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/ng0FZtDQT4
Zuckerberg is trying, charging hard to win the AI battle in the tech space. He faces competition from Open AI, Google, AWS (Amazon), NVIDIA, Microsoft and others for supremacy.
Tech investor, David Sacks, galvanized Silicon Valley support for Trump in the run-up to the election. On the day Trump was shot in an assassination attempt, Sacks's friend, Elon Musk, became an unapologetic supporter and admirer.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago today. 🕺
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) November 29, 2024
pic.twitter.com/h1r9fSdQB2
Between Trump's openness to AI, cryptocurrencies, and space exploration, high-profile tech entrepreneurs have moved to Trump.
Here's AWS founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos paying homage.
BREAKING: Jeff Bezos spotted arriving for dinner with President-Elect Donald Trump and Melania at Mar-a-Lago. pic.twitter.com/DDMm63deg3
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) December 19, 2024
Now that Trump has been elected, Silicon Valley hotshots are making pilgrimages to Mar-a-Lago to curry favor.
The Meta/Facebook censorship regime is diminished. Zuckerberg promises to move his content moderation operation to Texas in hopes of finding normal people to oversee it instead of sniffing Silicon Valley woke scolds who have Nina Jankowicz screen savers.
Is America's years-long censorship industrial complex destroyed by these new Trump fans?
Hell no.
But considering that personnel is policy — an axiom that even Silicon Valley is subject to — things are looking up.
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