Mark Zuckerberg’s comments on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast and his multiple olive branches to Donald Trump and the MAGA movement have reportedly left Meta employees horrified and disgruntled.
The Financial Times reports that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent public statements and actions have sparked a wave of internal backlash at the social media giant. The billionaire’s appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in January 2025, where he advocated for more “masculine energy” in the workplace and claimed the Biden administration ordered Meta to “censor things that were true” left many Meta staffers in “horror” and “grieving.”
During the podcast, Zuckerberg asserted that aggression in men can be a force for good and criticized the “bias” in the corporate world where intensity is seen as inherently bad. “You want to be able to channel that energy,” he said. These comments, along with his praise for President Trump and the rollback of censorship on his platforms, have fueled concerns among leftist employees and executives that Zuckerberg is aligning himself and the company with conservatives.
A handful of executives reportedly mustered the courage to speak out against Zuckerberg’s statements at a leadership meeting held at Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters just days after the podcast. However, the CEO allegedly dismissed their concerns, saying, “If you don’t like it, tough shit.”
While critics view these moves as a shift towards conservative ideals, those close to Zuckerberg claim that he is simply showing the public a side of him that they have long been familiar with in private. Meta’s chief technology officer, Andrew Bosworth, told the Financial Times that people are now seeing the “authentic” Zuckerberg. Bosworth, a noted leftist, has told complaining employees to “consider working elsewhere.”
Read more at the Financial Times here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
