Mark Zuckerberg reassures Meta staff about company values after policy shifts

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the social media giant’s values haven’t changed despite a number of policy changes. Photo / Getty Images

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sought to reassure his workforce on Wednesday that the social media giant’s values haven’t changed despite a slew of policy shifts that included ending its diversity and fact-checking programmes.

In a company-wide meeting, Zuckerberg told employees that 2025 would be a “big year for resetting our relationship with governments around the world”. But he specified that Meta would not forsake its values, according to a recording of the event obtained by the Washington Post.

“We now have an opportunity to have a productive partnership with the United States Government, and we’re going to take that,” he said. But “we’re not going to compromise any of our principles or values to do this”.

The message appeared to be an attempt to reassure employees after dramatic changes at the company in recent weeks. Zuckerberg has scrapped Meta’s diversity initiatives, reversed several restrictions on hate speech and ended its longtime fact-checking programme.

Meanwhile, the liberal-leaning workforce has watched its chief executive strengthen his personal relationship with US President Donald Trump, taking private meetings at Mar-a-Lago and joining Trump on the dais during his inauguration.

Many employees have taken to internal message boards to complain about the changes, arguing the company is caving to political pressures as Trump takes office and abdicating its own values, according to copies of the messages viewed by the Post. Meta told employees it would slash about 5% of jobs in February for performance-based reasons, casting more uncertainty over the workforce.

Zuckerberg largely defended the changes as part of Meta’s identity, arguing it has long cherished free expression. The Meta CEO also said the company’s social media networks should not limit “mainstream” speech or topics that are being debated in Congress. And he argued implementing a crowdsourced fact-checking model similar to X’s community notes programme would yield better results.

“I don’t like being wrong about things, but I do think you want to be able to admit when a different system is working better,” he said. “Community notes is going to be a superior system for helping to add context to all the discussions that are going on in a less biased way than the current system that we have.”

Zuckerberg also said the company remains committed to ensuring diversity in its workforce even though the regulatory environment seemed to be encouraging companies to forgo programmes that helped specific groups.

“I mean, it’s a little crazy that we need to say this,” Zuckerberg said. “We continue to believe that diversity is a strength.”