Zuckerberg’s new Washington game

On the surface, the apologetic letter Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent to congressional Republicans on Monday looks like a capitulation in the long-simmering political wars over social media. But tech observers on both sides of the aisle say that in the wake of this summer’s Supreme Court decisions on speech and social platforms, it also represents a shrewd political calculation—a surprise move by a CEO who wants to spend the next four years out of the political winds. Nu Wexler, a former Democratic congressional staffer and ex-spokesperson for several top tech firms in Washington, including Meta, sees Zuckerberg’s letter as an attempt to tamp down longstanding Republican ire over Meta’s perceived anti-conservative bias ahead of November—which could see Trump return to office and exact revenge on tech platforms that purportedly wronged him. "Like most other large companies before a toss-up election, Meta is probably hedging its bets here,” he said.