Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly lobbying the Trump administration to drop a pivotal FTC case against the company, in what would amount to a major political favor for Meta. Despite Zuckerberg’s multiple olive branches to the Turmp administration, a number of high-profile, pro-MAGA voices are still banned on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Mark Zuckerberg has made regular visits to the White House urging the president to lean on the FTC to drop its case against Meta. If the FTC were to prevail in the case, Meta could be forced to divest from WhatsApp and Instagram, breaking up the company.
In January, Zuckerberg made several public overtures to the Trump administration, praising parts of its policy platform in an appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience, and criticizing the outgoing Biden administration for its censorship demands during COVID. Zuckerberg also announced a policy pivot at Meta, promising to “get back to our roots” of supporting free speech.
Despite these pledges, several prominent anti-establishment figures remain banned on Meta platforms:
- Laura Loomer, investigative journalist and former Republican congressional candidate who was recently credited with influencing a shakeup at the NSC.
- Tommy Robinson, the prominent British political activist and critic of Islam.
- Alex Jones
- Paul Joseph Watson
- Gavin McInnes
- Milo Yiannopoulos, self-styled “civil rights icon” and former Breitbart News editor.
It is also unclear if Meta still maintains its “hate agents” list of prominent anti-establishment voices uncovered by Breitbart News in 2019 that included political candidates. Or if the company has taken any steps to remedy the mass-censorship of WhatsApp accounts in Brazil, which extended to Flavio Bolsonaro, son of persecuted former president Jair Bolsonaro. In a comment to Breitbart News, the company denied it has continued to maintain its documented list of hate agents.
As the FTC trial date draws closer, Meta has drawn flak from the conservative commentariat.
“Zuckerberg is full of shit,” said Laura Loomer in an X post yesterday. “And so are all of the so called “conservatives” he brought on now that Trump is back. Facebook lied to me & said my account would be restored. I’m still banned.”
“Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions — billions — of dollars supporting open borders, “criminal justice reform” (think – George Floyd riots) and election-fixing for Democrats and now he wants favors from the Trump administration,” said War Room reporter Natalie Winters, quoting from an article on Zuckerberg and the “tech right.”
The article quoted by Winters was written by the X account Captive Dreamer, whose video criticizing Zuckerberg and Meta has racked up over a million views.
“Facebook must be broken up,” said author and filmmaker Mike Cernovich. “[Instagram] and WhatsApp should not have been allowed to merge with them. Clear antitrust violations, this limits competition and gives too much power to censor to one man, Mark Zuckerberg, who hates America.”
Meta spokesperson Francis Brennan told Breitbart News in a statement that it currently has no list of “hate agents” and “given our recent policy changes, we are exploring the possibility of restoring certain accounts.”
As Zuckerberg and other Meta executives work to get closer to the Trump Administration, Breitbart News will continue to investigate the platforms treatment of conservative figures.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
