Meta’s top policy executive said Mark Zuckerberg wants to play an “active role” in shaping tech regulations under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration — and admitted the social media giant “went a little overboard” while moderating content related to the pandemic.
The mea culpa from Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs, is the latest sign that Zuckerberg is trying to cozy up to Trump – who has previously called Facebook “the enemy of the people” and criticized its billionaire founder for censorship of conservative views.
Last week, Zuckerberg raced to Mar-a-Lago for dinner with Trump after reportedly seeking a meeting with the president-elect to discuss “the next administration.” Afterward, Meta said Zuckerberg was “grateful for the invitation.”
In the final overture, Clegg said Zuckerberg intends to have “an active role in the debates that any administration should have about maintaining America’s leadership in technology … and especially the central role that AI will play.”
Another key figure seeking influence on AI policy is X owner Elon Musk, who has emerged as a key adviser to Trump and has clashed frequently with Zuckerberg over the years.
Zuckerberg wants Meta’s efforts “to improve the accuracy and precision with which we operate under our rules” to be “an area of continued focus” at the company, Clegg said during Monday’s press conference, according to the Financial Times.
The former UK Liberal Democrat leader, who drew scorn for getting into bed with the country’s Conservative Party to carve out power, went on to admit that Meta has been too quick to censor content.
“We are very aware – because users very rightly spoke up and complained about this – that we sometimes over-enforce, make mistakes and remove or restrict harmless or innocent content,” Clegg said.
Meta is engaged in a fierce competition with Google and Microsoft-backed OpenAI to develop advanced artificial intelligence tools. Unlike its rivals, Meta supports an “open source” approach to AI.
Zuckerberg’s calls to Trump come after the president-elect said he opposed the idea of banning China-owned TikTok, in part because it would make Facebook bigger.
Trump and his allies had targeted Meta since July, accusing the company of suppressing information about the attempted assassination of the Republican presidential candidate at a July 13 rally.
In August, Zuckerberg shocked the tech industry by admitting that the Biden administration had pressured Facebook to censor content related to COVID-19 in 2021 — including memes and satirical posts.
Zuckerberg made the admission in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
The social media titan also acknowledged that Facebook was wrong to censor The Post’s exclusive reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop in the past.
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