Meta fires employees for leaks amid Zuckerberg's Trump pivot

Meta on Thursday said it had laid off 20 workers for leaking information to the media, as the social media giant faces pressure over the recent political shift of its boss Mark Zuckerberg towards US President Donald Trump.

"We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent," a Meta spokesperson said, confirming a story first reported in The Verge.

"We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees being terminated for sharing confidential information outside the company, and we expect there will be more," the company added.

"We take this seriously, and will continue to take action when we identify leaks."

The round of firings came following a recent series of reports based on Zuckerberg's meetings with employees.

In one meeting, first reported by The Verge, Zuckerberg told employees he would no longer be forthcoming with information because "we try to be really open and then everything I say leaks. It sucks."

He also warned them to "buckle up" for the coming year and said that Meta would be a productive partner with the White House.

Tech leaders have broadly fallen in line around Trump since he won the election in November, with Zuckerberg making a particular turn towards the Republican since his return to office.

Zuckerberg has multiplied his advances towards Trump, who last summer threatened the tech tycoon with life imprisonment after Meta excluded the president from Facebook in January 2021 for encouraging the assault on the Capitol.

The CEO and founder has dined with the Republican on several occasions, donated to the president's inauguration fund, eased up on content moderation, and ended Facebook's US fact-checking program in an effort to draw closer to the new Republican leadership in Washington.

His longtime political affairs boss was also replaced by a prominent Republican, and he named Trump ally Dana White to his board after the US election.

The measures align with the conservative views of the president and his allies, as well as masculinist entertainers and personalities like Elon Musk.

On the Joe Rogan podcast, Zuckerberg complained that "a lot of the corporate world is pretty culturally neutered" and that embracing masculine energy "is good."

© Agence France-Presse