Mark Zuckerberg defends embrace of Trump -Administration in Meta -Employees’ Questions and Questions

In a far-reaching question-and-response session with Meta employees on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s CEO, defended the recent changes he had made to loosen restrictions on online speech and end diversity initiatives, and doubled on embrace of President Trump’s new administration.

“I will be ready, after the last several years we now have an opportunity to have a productive partnership with the US government,” Mr. Zuckerberg, according to a recording of the meeting, shared with the New York Times. “We’ll take it.”

Mr. Zuckerberg, 40, said it was “basic” for Meta – the world’s largest social media company with Facebook, Instagram, threads and WhatsApp – to be on better conditions with governments around the world.

“The government can kind of be active against you, try to get in the way and add a lot of friction or can actively try to help you break down barriers to help you,” he said. “That’s the right thing to do.”

At the hour -long meeting with Meta’s more than 70,000 employees, Mr. Zuckerberg also that 2025 would be a significant year for potentially transformative initiatives from Meta’s business, including focusing on artificial intelligence, data centers and the Metaverse world.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s remarks signaled his tightened grip on Meta as he has transformed the business of the Trump era into the finding of some of his employees. This month, Mr. Zuckerberg sweeping changes to reduce Meta’s limitations for speech, completed a fact -control program and killed diversity efforts in the workplace. He also showed up to President Trump’s inauguration and has criticized former President Bid’s administration for being anti-tech.

At Meta, Mr. Zuckerberg jammed off the employees’ dissent in recent years, including by banning discussions in the workplace on certain disputed social and political issues.

Some employees have pushed back on the changes, such as removing tampons from men’s bathrooms in the company, which were delivered to transcend and non -binary employees. As late as Thursday, some employees circulated a registration form for workers to buy sanitary products and bring them to Meta’s offices in a protest, said two people who have seen the form.

A spokesman for meta refused to comment. Business Insider earlier reported On parts of Mr. Zuckerberg’s conversation.

During the meeting, Mr. Zuckerberg that some of Meta’s changes – such as removing many of its DEI teams – were a reflection of the times.

“We are in the midst of a rather rapidly changing policy and the regulatory landscape that considers any policy that can benefit from one group of people over another as something that is illegal,” he said. “Because of this, we and any other institution out there need to adapt.”

Mr. Zuckerberg said he personally thought Meta had a “good track record” about diversity and that it was a strength to have a diverse workforce.

Janelle Gale, Meta’s leader of people, said at the meeting that there were other types of discrimination that were not as far as recognized by Meta, but which still had to be resolved. The company has fired women for sexual harassment, she said, and some people had been excluded from their political views.

Mr. Zuckerberg said Meta brought back some form of its unconscious bias education, which would not just focus on “a few different groups.”

Some employees were sorry that the format of the meeting had changed. For years, employees voted on what questions they should ask Mr. Zuckerberg. Those who received the most votes were asked.

This time it didn’t happen. A page chat room where employees used to comment on the live presentation was also removed, said two people who participated in the call.

Mr. Zuckerberg said the changes of the meeting were intentional due to an increasing number of leaks in recent years.

“I think there are a lot of things that are value that I do not want to talk about,” he said, referring to the types of questions that have become public. “Maybe that’s the nature of running a company on this scale. But it’s a bit of a bummer. “

After the meeting, Meta sent an internal message that said employees would be completed if they talked to the media, said two people who received the note.

During the call, Mr. Zuckerberg also the uncertainty of Tiktok, the Chinese-owned video app banned in the United States according to a federal law that came into force this month. President Trump has signed an executive order to pause the ban.

Tiktok was one of Meta’s “most important competitors”, Mr. Zuckerberg and added that he saw the development carefully.

Employees asked Mr. Zuckerberg about whether the emergence of Deepseek, a Chinese AI startup that produced an advanced AI model for a fraction of the cost of many other companies, raised questions about Meta’s increasing cost of data centers.

Mr. Zuckerberg said Deepseek would help Meta’s Open Source strategy around AI, which includes freely sharing code so that other companies can build apps and continue to improve technology. Some of Deepseek’s technological advances have already helped to improve Meta’s AI models, he said.

But using on data centers – which gives computing power to AI -progress – would still be a competitive advantage for Meta, Mr. Zuckerberg.

“This year feels a little more like a sprint to me,” he said. “It’s going to be a crazy year.”

Kate Conger and Sheera Frenkel contributed with reporting.