Big Tech is working overtime to mend its relationship with Republicans as the party takes full control of Washington. It looks like it’s paying off.
In a brief interview, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), previously a huge critic of Meta, indicated he’s turned over a new leaf with the company. Meta announced Tuesday it would end its third-party fact-checking, among other changes that would move the company in line with Elon Musk’s X. Joel Kaplan, a Bush administration alumnus who just recently started leading the company’s global affairs operation, announced the moves on “Fox & Friends.” He personally gave Jordan a heads-up the day before, during what the Ohio Republican called a “great call.”
Jordan said he hopes his onetime adversary, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, will be an ally in the free speech fight, and he plans to meet with him during Zuckerberg’s visit to Washington in the coming weeks. And he indicated he’s shifting his considerable investigative powers over First Amendment issues elsewhere, specifically pointing to fears around freedom of speech in Europe, a recent topic of concern for his committee.
“Remember that a few years ago, [the social media platforms] all kicked President [Donald] Trump off the platform. Now, they’re all going to Mar-a-Lago to visit with him because they know like this Trump administration is pro-First Amendment, and pro-free speech, and so it’s a dramatic change,” Jordan said. “We’re really appreciative of what Meta decided to do.”
Contrast that attitude with the last few years. Meta has been a potent target for House Republicans looking to tie bad-acting corporate behemoths to their chief adversary, President Joe Biden. Jordan has personally leveraged his gavel to attack Meta for allegations of suppression of conservative speech, accusing Zuckerberg’s company of conspiring with the Biden administration to silence dissent. In the last Congress, Jordan went so far as to threaten to hold Zuckerberg in contempt of Congress for failing to cooperate with his committee.
Of course, Jordan can tout the recent changes as proof that his pressure on Meta paid off. Don’t expect every Republican to be quite so forgiving — the company will inevitably have to continue to defend itself against other legislative targets beyond Jordan’s investigations. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), an author of the Kids Online Safety Act, which would put additional burdens on social media companies to protect children online, called the announcement a “ploy to avoid being regulated.”
Meta’s side: The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, is hopeful that the recent moves will get the GOP off its back — one Meta lobbyist noted that the reaction from Republicans to the policy changes has generally been positive.
The lobbyist, granted anonymity to speak frankly, said that while the campaign to counter misinformation was a good faith effort, it was a double-edged sword politically. It never seemed to be enough for the left and caused significant anger on the right, the person said. And the Judiciary Committee’s investigation into Meta certainly put it in an unflattering light, the person added.
“Would all this be happening if Trump didn’t get elected? Nobody knows,” the lobbyist said. “That’s not the world that we live in.”
A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.
