Meta announced the inclusion of Donald Trump’s ally, Dana White, on its board of directors. The company believes White will play a critical role in shaping the future of AI. Meta has been making strategic adjustments by adding Republican-aligned advisors who are likely to be agreeable to the incoming administration.
Meta announced on Monday that the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), who is also a longtime friend of President-elect Donald Trump, has joined Meta’s board. White joins two other members: John Elkann, the CEO of Exor, and Charlie Songhurst, a tech investor who once headed Microsoft’s global corporate strategy.
Zuckerberg praises White, but users see PR move
While announcing the appointment through Facebook, Zuckerberg praised the president of the UFC for building the sports brand to be among the fastest and most popular sports enterprises globally. The Meta CEO further said he admires White as an entrepreneur and also how quickly he built his UFC brand.
The UFC and his Meta counterpart are interested in a full-contact game, mixed martial arts. White believes in AI and has already inquired with Meta executives about using AI to change UFC rankings.
While most quarters celebrate the appointment, some online users in X are not impressed. Greatest American Hero wrote on X.
Let’s be real MAGA, Zuckerberg can never be accepted. Election interference. Suppression of truth and free speech. Think of how many true Americans were harmed by his decisions. HIS DECISIONS. That would be like the families of British girls forgiving the Pakistani Muslims…
— GreatestAmericanHero (@mrralphhinkley) January 6, 2025
White stood with Trump in his 2016 campaigns and became integral to his 2024 journey to the presidency. He offered strategic advice to Trump’s campaigns and encouraged him to leverage social influencers to attract young men to vote for him. White also gave a blazing speech during the Republican National Convention.
Meta’s political stand is manifesting in its recent appointments
Meta’s move to include White on its board is among the many changes that aim to improve its political position during the incoming political administration. Earlier, Meta also announced that Joel Kaplan would succeed Nick Clegg as its chief global affairs officer.
Clegg was the former UK deputy prime minister. He said that he would take some time to hand over leadership as he transformed to other endeavors. Clegg has been in charge of public policy efforts, and he has been vocal in defending Meta’s way of protecting elections and opening up for open-sourced AI models.
Kaplan is now the senior Republican in Meta. He served in the White House for 8 years when George W. Bush was president and supported Trump’s Supreme Court pick, Brett M. Kavanaugh. Kaplan’s transition to head the department means Kevin Martin, a Republican-nominated chairperson of the Federal Communications Commission, will take his current position.
Meta gave out $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee, and Zuckerberg dined with the incoming president at Mar-a-Lago in November.
In other news, Meta employees voiced their concerns on the company’s internal forum, criticizing the decision to discontinue third-party fact-checking on its platform just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. One employee remarked that the move seemed to send a troubling message: facts no longer matter, and this was framed as a win for free speech.
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