The ambitions of Mark Zuckerberg as a powerful player of Washington led him to another corner of the Hobnobbing scene of the capital: the round table.
In September, Meta’s managing director quietly joined the organization that lobes on behalf of large American companies after contacting this months earlier, said Andy Stone, a Meta spokesperson, in New York Times.
Mr. Zuckerberg, who once avoided weighing on politics, adopted President Trump and has become a more visible presence in Washington. The night before the inauguration of Mr. Trump, where Mr. Zuckerberg had first -rate seatshe Attended a black tie party to celebrate the new administration at the Manor of Peter Thiel in the national capital.
The Meta Chief also started to express themselves on questions that have been the subject of Mr. Trump’s discussion. On Joe Rogan Podcast this month, Mr. Zuckerberg criticized what he considered to be moves to monitor speech and behavior, saying: “a large part of the business world is quite cultivated on the cultural level”.
A week before Mr. Trump was enslaved, Mr. Zuckerberg announced that Meta would stop publications to verify facts on Facebook, a decision that seemed designed to satisfy the new president and the conservatives who accused the company of censor on the platform. “I now have a much greater order for what I think should be, and that’s how it will go ahead,” he told Rogan. The newly vocal position can also have thoughtful Mr. Zuckerberg’s personal opinions.
The business round table has also seen a change. In 2019, it became a symbol for “gentle capitalism” against which Mr. Zuckerberg recently reduced. That year, the round table, then led by the director general of Jpmorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, published a statement To say that companies should go beyond advancing the interests of short-term shareholders and “investing in their employees, protecting the environment and dealing in a fair and ethical manner with their suppliers”.
But such a thought had fallen into disgrace even before Mr. Trump’s re -election, and American companies refocused on the results. Walmart chief Doug McMillon, who directed the company’s round table after Mr. Dimon, has made the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts retreat in November In the midst of a broader cultural reaction. During the World Economic Forum of this year, where diversity initiatives were once celebrated, the discussion of many social questions was almost absent.
“Diversity in general is good for business”, Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco and the current president of the Business Round Table, said CNBC at the annual rally in DavosSwiss. “But I think the pendulum swung.”