Will Meta’s plan to end fact checking work politically?

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Meta’s bombshell announcement on Tuesday that it would end its fact-checking program was widely read as a major change in policy to appease President-elect Donald Trump and other conservatives.

In fact, the move was perhaps less radical than it initially seemed. But the shift still serves as a reminder that many corporate leaders see their top priority as reading the room — a task Trump now dominates.

Mark Zuckerberg has been moving in this direction for some time. In connection with the 2016 election, the meta chief, who has a history of weathering political headwinds, followed other tech companies in partnering with fact-checking groups to police content on their platforms, including Facebook and Instagram. However, since then, the tech mogul has been angry as Meta was criticized for failing to do enough and removing too many user posts.

“It’s time to return to our roots around free expression,” Zuckerberg said in a video announcing the changes, including a move to X-style user-policing, known as Community Notes. Is.” (Katie Harbath, a former communications executive at Meta, told The Times, “It’s an evolved return to his political origins.”)

The changes are not necessarily as large as they first appeared. Politico noted that Meta had returning back Efforts to moderate it in recent years. And while Zuckerberg promoted a plan to move such workers to Texas to “eliminate bias,” many such workers are already based there.

Zuckerberg is not alone: ​​Tech companies Never Wanted To be in the business of moderating user content. last summer, youtube started testing A version of Community Notes, although it was described as a supplemental feature.

Is the political gain for Meta worth the criticism? Trump, who has criticized the company’s moves to police its content — including briefly shutting down his Facebook account after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — said the tech giant was “very Have moved forward.” (He also said that his threats against Zuckerberg “likely” contributed to the new policy.)

Meta executives may be hoping that, with the promotion of longtime Republican executive Joel Kaplan to lead global affairs, a $1 million donation to the Trump inaugural fund and the addition of Trump ally Dana White to its board, He can be made the President. -Good grace of choice.

One aspect to watch: Zuckerberg said he would work with Trump.oppose foreign governments Going after US companies to censor more.” It was a veiled shot against the EU, which has sought to punish companies including Meta for inadequately monitoring their platforms — and Tuesday’s Scrutiny of tech giants may increase after the move.

Will this step work? So far, advertisers are not objecting publicly. And Tuesday’s news likely allays concerns about which regulator Trump chooses, including Brendan Carr The Federal Communications Commission had this about META.

But Senator Marsha BlackburnThe Tennessee Republican wrote on Twitter that META’s change was merely “a ploy to avoid being regulated.” He added, “We will not be fooled.”

Wildfires near Los Angeles forced mass evacuations. Parts of Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades were engulfed in flames, destroying homes and forcing at least 30,000 people to flee for safety. Another fire near Pasadena was also causing problems as officials warned of catastrophic damage.

Anthropic is close to raising billions of dollars in capital. Artificial intelligence start-up is in advanced talks to raise $2 billion in a round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, reports The Times. If completed, the fund-raising would value Anthropic at $60 billion – nearly three times its value a year ago – in another sign that the deal that created the frenzy around AI shows no signs of slowing down .

JPMorgan Chase reportedly plans to have employees back in the office five days a week. he is up That’s a drop from the three-day-a-week requirement, even though about 60 percent of the Wall Street giant’s employees are already in the office full time, according to Bloomberg. Other major companies have already reduced or eliminated work-from-home policies introduced during the coronavirus pandemic; JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has long criticized hybrid work arrangements.

Coming to 2025, the big questions hanging over President-elect Donald Trump’s second term include tax cuts, the independence of the Fed, and potential new trade wars.

But few would have imagined that the president-elect would refuse to use military force or economic pressure against allies as he did at a wide-ranging news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. This emphasizes that for markets, a Trump presidency brings a number of potential black swan events.

A recap: Trump unveiled a broader vision of “America First” while doubling down on calls for the United States to regain control of Greenland and the Panama Canal. And he talked about renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of the Americas,” though it was unclear how serious he was about it.

Trump’s impact can be seen on the market on Wednesday. The S&P 500 looks set to open lower, and sectors like green energy Companies including Tesla fell after Trump’s criticism on Tuesday wind turbines And raved about electric vehicles.

And the yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit a nearly nine-month high on Tuesday, a worrying sign for home hunters And credit-card holders.

Some market observers still believe the markets can buck Trump’s agenda. Bond watchdogs could act to put the brakes on Trump’s policies if inflation picks up again.

More broadly, the Trump team “cares about the judgment of financial markets,” Holger Schmieding, an economist at Berenberg, wrote in a research note Wednesday. “If their actions impair growth prospects and corporate earnings badly enough to trigger a selloff, they may change course.”

There are signs that may prove to be true. Trump admitted on Tuesday that it would happen Lowering consumer prices is “hard”A stark change from what he had told supporters during the campaign. His big idea to fight inflation, expanding oil drilling, has not yet impressed the markets, with crude prices rising steadily in recent weeks. (President Biden’s ban on new oil exploration in vast stretches of U.S. waters has contributed to that price increase, and it may be hard for Trump to undo.)

That said, the VIX volatility index, known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, has been stable for weeks, a sign that equity investors are still bullish.

Donald Trump’s transition team has already amassed a mega-budget to stage an inauguration ceremony for the ages.

And the president-elect can thank veterans of the tech industry and Wall Street — some of the same celebrities who recently met him at Mar-a-Lago — for a record haul of at least $150 million. Few federal rules control how Trump and his allies can spend the money.

Donors who have gone public include: Amazon, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Meta and Uber. Executives like Apple’s Tim Cook, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi and OpenAI’s Sam Altman have also contributed.

Contributing to inaugural funds has become a tradition in corporate America. “You’re giving money directly to the incoming president without the risk of backing the wrong horse,” Craig Holman, a lobbyist for consumer rights watchdog Public Citizen, told DealBook’s Sarah Kessler. Donors who give $1 million to the fund receive tickets to the inauguration as well as other events, such as a reception with Cabinet picks and a pre-inauguration dinner with Trump.

There are only a few restrictions. Foreign nationals are not allowed to donate, and donations over $200 must be disclosed. And anti-bribery laws apply. “Also, it’s pretty open in terms of who can contribute and how they can spend it,” said Kenneth Gross, a lawyer specializing in campaign finance at Akin Gump.

Inauguration funds pay for the parties, dinners and parades, while taxpayers foot the bill for security and the swearing-in ceremony.

What will happen to the unspent funds? Two people involved in raising money for Trump’s inauguration told The Times that donors expect the remaining money to go to Trump’s presidential library.

Last time Trump’s team had raised $107 million (previous record). It was later revealed that approximately $26 million was paid to an event planning firm created by an advisor to First Lady Melania Trump.

Lawmakers have sought to change things. a bill Introduced in 2023 Would limit contributions to $50,000. But such efforts have gained little momentum.

Corporate treasury departments are usually bastions of caution, preferring to invest their companies’ money in stable assets such as treasury bonds. But a growing number are choosing to take a different path by investing in crypto.

According to one estimate, more than 70 publicly traded companies have invested in Bitcoin, although some have nothing to do with crypto. At least some people have been inspired by MicroStrategy, a software company that started amassing bitcoins in 2020 — and is now sitting on more than $40 billion in reserves. MicroStrategy’s share price has increased almost tenfold in the last 18 months.

But it means that those companies are investing their money in highly volatile assets If things go wrong it could put their financial situation at risk, write David Yaffe-Bellaney and Joe Rennison of The Times:

The investment is a sharp pivot from the cautious approach of the traditional corporate treasury department, whose focus is typically on protecting cash rather than putting it at risk for higher returns. Typical reserve assets include stable, predictable securities such as US government bonds and money market funds.

“I can’t understand how a risk-averse board can justify investing in digital assets when we know they are highly volatile,” said Naresh Agarwal, associate director of the Association of Corporate Treasurers, a trade organization. It happens.” “It’s a fairly opaque market.”

Some investors do not agree with this new strategy. When publicly traded marketing firm Banzai decided to invest in Bitcoin, some shareholders expressed concern. Its CEO Joe Davie told The Times: “I got a few calls from people who were like: ‘What the hell is going on there?’ What are you thinking?'”

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