A new Washington Post report goes deep on the ways that Facebook has given in to Republican demands out of fear of angering conservatives and Trumpists. Media Matters has repeatedly written about this topic, and this appeasement is one reason that Mark Zuckerberg was named 2017 Misinformer of the Year.

Here are some notable takeaways from Craig Timberg’s thorough reporting:

• Facebook executive Joel Kaplan, a former official in the George W. Bush White House, personally defended keeping up a network of fake news sites, saying, “We can’t remove all of it because it will disproportionately affect conservatives,” and that prominent right-wing figures did not believe that the content they pushed was fake news.

• Facebook may be making advertising decisions out of fear of angering Republicans. The company has continued to allow narrow targeting of political advertising to individuals by “their home address, gender, education level, income, marital status, job or other characteristics” even as Democrats warned that such targeting undermined transparency and eased the spread of disinformation. Google has limited targeting, and Twitter has banned political ads. The report quotes former Facebook executive Alex Stamos: “I think Facebook is looking at their political advertising policies in explicitly partisan terms, and they’re afraid of angering Republicans.”

• A former Facebook employee said Facebook does not know any other way to engage with Republicans other than to just give in. “Facebook does not speak Republican. … This is what they know about Republicans: Tell them ‘yes’ or they will hurt us.”

• Facebook’s desire to appease Republicans is a throughline of major decisions, including its decision to allow Breitbart in its news tab program.

• Facebook met with Corey Lewandowski, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, shortly after the 2016 election to explore whether he could consult with the company on how to engage with Trump’s White House. Nothing ever came of it, though Timberg notes that “the encounter left many within the company uneasy about what Trump and his allies might do.”

• Republicans gained clout inside Facebook during the Trump years, largely led by Joel Kaplan, but also by former Giuliani campaign aide Katie Harbath.

• Kaplan and Harbath set up the meeting with top Facebook executives and conservative media figures including Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck following the publication of a misleading Gizmodo article about trending topics in 2016.

• Facebook knew about Russian interference in the 2016 election, and its 2017 white paper on the topic avoided mentioning Russia allegedly in part to avoid angering the Trump administration. From the Post piece:

• While an internal audit (prompted by Republican claims of censorship) turned up no evidence that Facebook was biased against conservatives, Facebook still made moves to appease right-wing figures.

• While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes a harsh stance toward calls from progressives like Elizabeth Warren to regulate Facebook, he has been more conciliatory toward Trump even as the Justice Department began an antitrust review of tech companies, including Facebook.

• Zuckerberg invited conservatives, including Grover Norquist, into his home to meet with them.

• The decision by Facebook to allow lies in political advertisements was arguably made to appeal to Republicans:

Anyway, we told you so.