Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Patrick Soon-Shiong

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Media billionaires are cozying up to Trump as Meta slashes its content moderation policy

The owners of Meta, The Washington Post, and the LA Times are making their news and content friendlier to the president-elect as other media moguls offer support

Written by Gideon Taaffe

Research contributions from Sage Hodil

Published

CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent rollback of Meta’s content moderation and fact-checking programs is the latest move by media billionaires looking to cozy up to President-elect Donald Trump as he prepares to take office — joining him for private meetings at Mar-a-Lago, throwing money at his inauguration, and positioning their outlets to offer more favorable coverage of Trump. 

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  • Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta

    • Zuckerberg began to cozy up to Trump following the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, despite Trump’s previous calls for the Meta CEO to be imprisoned. Speaking to Bloomberg in July 2024, Zuckerberg praised Trump’s response to the shooting as “one of the most badass things” he had ever seen but did not explicitly endorse the campaign. [NBC News, 7/19/24] 
    • Zuckerberg had dinner with Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the election, and Meta donated $1 million to his inauguration fund. [BBC, 12/12/24] 
    • Since Trump’s victory, Zuckerberg has strengthened ties to Trump by making conservative appointments. Dana White, the UFC CEO and Trump ally, will serve on the board of directors, while Joel Kaplan, a former George W. Bush White House staffer, will be the new global policy chief at Meta. [NPR, 1/6/24] 
    • On January 7, Zuckerberg released a video announcing changes to Meta that he says will promote free speech and decrease censorship. Zuckerberg promised Meta will do away with its fact-checking program and instead adopt community notes, move content moderation employees from California to Texas to avoid accusations of political bias, and “get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender.” [Meta, 1/7/25; The Guardian, 1/7/25]
    • With the recent changes to Meta’s content moderation, Zuckerberg said he will “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.” The CEO also claimed the election was “a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising speech.” [The Guardian, 1/7/25]
    • Meta’s new “Hateful Conduct” policy will reportedly allow for significantly more racist and sexist abuse. According to Wired, “Meta now appears to permit users to accuse transgender or gay people of being mentally ill because of their gender expression and sexual orientation.” The updated policy also “appears to carve out room for people who want to post about how, for example, women shouldn’t be allowed to serve in the military or men shouldn’t be allowed to teach math because of their gender.” [Wired, 1/7/25]

  • Jeff Bezos, Amazon chairman and owner of The Washington Post

    • Bezos congratulated Trump following the 2024 election, saying his win was “an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory.” Bezos added, “We look forward to working with you and your administration on issues important to our customers, employees, communities, and country.” [CNN, 11/6/24]
    • In December, Bezos met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort and pledged millions to support Trump’s inauguration. Bezos pledged $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund and agreed to stream Trump's January 20 ceremony on Amazon’s Prime Video service, which will count as an additional, in-kind $1 million donation. [BBC, 12/19/24; The Wall Street Journal, 12/12/24]
    • During an interview at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Bezos said he would “help” Trump enact his agenda of “reducing regulation.” Bezos also claimed he was “very optimistic” about a second Trump term. [The Associated Press, 12/4/24]
    • Bezos exerted his ownership of The Washington Post to prevent its editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. “An endorsement of Harris had been drafted by Post editorial page staffers but had yet to be published, according to two people who were briefed on the sequence of events and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly,” the paper reported. “The decision to no longer publish presidential endorsements was made by The Post’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to four people who were briefed on the decision.” [The Washington Post, 10/25/24]
    • Around the same time The Washington Post’s endorsement was blocked, executives from Blue Origin — a Bezos-owned company that receives substantial government contracts — met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. The Daily Beast reported that outgoing Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan claimed Trump waited to have the meeting until the newspaper declined to endorse and called it part of a “quid pro quo” arrangement with Bezos. [The Daily Beast, 10/27/24]
    • A Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist at The Washington Post resigned after the paper blocked publication of her depiction of Bezos and other tech billionaires kneeling in front of Trump with bags of cash. Cartoonist Ann Telnaes wrote, “I have had editorial feedback and productive conversations—and some differences—about cartoons I have submitted for publication, but in all that time I’ve never had a cartoon killed because of who or what I chose to aim my pen at. Until now.” [CNN, 1/4/25]
    • Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for the licensing rights to produce a documentary about first lady Melania Trump that she will co-produce. [The Daily Beast, 1/7/25]

  • Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times

    • The billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times has taken several actions to neuter the paper’s critiques of Trump, including not endorsing Harris for president and asking the editorial board to “take a break” from writing about Trump. Soon-Shiong claimed his decision to block the endorsement was not a partisan one but later complained that the paper had become an “echo chamber” and moved too far left. [The Guardian, 12/18/24]
    • Soon-Shiong hired Scott Jennings, a pro-Trump voice on CNN, to join the Los Angeles Times’ editorial board amid an effort to bring in more conservative voices. Soon-Shiong has suggested that other new members of the restructured editorial board will follow in early 2025. [Vanity Fair, 12/17/24]
    • The Los Angeles Times’ owner reportedly killed a negative editorial about Trump’s Cabinet picks. According to a CNN source, the paper’s editors have “softened” opinion section headlines over fears that Soon-Shiong would reject “anything too harsh.” [CNN, 12/13/24]
    • Soon-Shiong is reportedly working with actor/comedian Rob Schneider to create a conservative talk show that would compete with ABC’s The View. The meeting between Soon-Shiong and Schneider included Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s wife, Cheryl Hines. [Status News, 1/2/25]

  • Other billionaires

    • Elon Musk has grown closer to Trump and has been named to play a role in his forthcoming administration. The New York Times has reported Musk is Trump’s “most important donor, most influential social media promoter and a key adviser on policy and personnel.” Trump has named Musk, along with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, to head the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency. [The New York Times, 12/30/24; Reuters, 11/13/24] 
    • Other billionaires have also joined in donating to Trump and spreading his influence in the media landscape. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Apple’s Tim Cook have each donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Altman also issued a statement saying Trump “will lead our country into the age of AI, and I am eager to support his efforts to ensure America stays ahead.” [The Associated Press, 12/4/24; Axios, 1/3/25; Newsweek, 1/6/25]