Mark Zuckerberg‘s sudden meeting with Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago Wednesday spawned a firestorm of speculation on social media.
Onlookers are already accusing the Meta boss of pandering to the president-elect, after he threatened to throw him in jail earlier this year.
The promise for prosecution was aired in anticipation of interference in the then-looming election, which went overwhelmingly Trump’s way.
Four years ago, the 40-year-old Facebook founder famously banned Trump, 78, from the platform over claims the 2020 election was stolen.
That spawned several instances of censorship, leading Trump to paint Zuckerberg as part of a plot against him to rig the race.
He later vowed Zuckerberg would ‘spend the rest of his life in prison’ if he did so this time around – setting the proverbial table for the pre-Thanksgiving, post-election meal.
Since confirmed by Meta, the meeting itself remains a mystery – but quickly gave way to discourse online about what may have occurred.
Most portrayed Zuckerberg as using the meet to sing for his supper, seeing what’s at stake.
‘Zuckerberg went to [M]ar-a-largo[sic] to tell Trump he has changed his ways and wants to work with Trump?’ one X user wrote.
‘Hell no[.] He needs to be investigated for censorship and election interference!’
‘No, Trump should not pay [K]amala’s debt, Trump should not pardon Hunter, and Trump should show no mercy to Zuckerberg,’ wrote another, referencing in part how Trump has teased paying of the reported $20 million racked up by the campaign of Kamala Harris.
The tweet also honed in on the federal case surrounding President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, pleaded guilty in September to a four-year scheme that saw him purposely circumvent $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes owed from 2016 through 2019
The political scion also owned up to another instance of tax evasion in 2018, when he filed false returns. At his sentencing next month, he faces a max penalty of 17 years in prison.
He also faces felony federal firearms sentencing in Delaware the very same month publishable by up to 25 years – spurring speculation about a last-minute pardon from his dad, who could, in theory, commute any prospective sentence as well, as a show of mercy.
Leniency was not on the mind of one X user observing the situation with Zuckerberg, who restricted a story about Biden’s son laptop during the 2020 election based on FBI misinformation warnings.
‘So Mark Zuckerberg censored conservatives and Trump let’s[sic] this guy come over to Mar-a-Lago to have dinner?’ they wrote Thursday, before labeling Trump’s decision to take in the tech CEO as ‘a joke.’
‘Seems like a slap in the face to his supporters,’ they concluded, referring to Trump’s fanbase.
‘Zuckerberg realizes that he backed the wrong camp,’ added another. ‘Now he is groveling on his belly, slithering like a snake!
‘Trump must not trust Zuckerberg,’ the account went on to insist – calling Zuckerberg ‘a fair weather friend.’
Others posted memes poking fun at what many framed as a show of weakness from the Harvard-educated billionaire, whose estimated $200billion net worth has him safely at fourth on Forbes’ billionaire list.
Someone else sniped: [T]here’s not many that’s going to forgive Mark Zuckerberg. He has messed with… MAGA one too many times.
‘We the people don’t like it when somebody messes with our President Trump,’ he concluded, paving the way for personalities like Laura Loomer – the Republican Florida Congressional nominee who lost to Democrat Lois Frankel in 2020 – to weigh in.
Calling the meeting’s greater connotations ‘disturbing’, she accused Zuckerberg of using Facebook and Instagram to censor posts surrounding Trump’s first assassination attempt earlier this year.
‘As an American and a die hard Trump supporter, I am never going to forget how Mark Zuckerberg censored the assassination attempt pictures of President Trump and then programmed Facebook to hide and censor all mentions of the attempted assassination,’ Loomer, 31, wrote.
She added how it was ‘very disturbing’ that a figure with a history such as Zuckerberg was ‘allowed’ to have dinner with the president-elect, as a parade of progressive journalists and CEOs continue to travel their to kiss the ring.
‘Donald Trump was blessed with a miracle that day in Butler, and Zuckerberg wants to push revisionist history so no trace of the assassination attempt can be seen on Facebook and Instagram. That is EVIL.
‘Doesn’t get more evil than that. I cannot stay silent about that,’ the far-right commentator concluded, calling Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan ‘anti-American lunatics.
At another point, the right-winged influencer said the social network chief ‘stole’ her family photos when she was kicked off Facebook for anti-Muslim rhetoric and conspiracy theories like that the 9/11 attacks were an ‘inside job’ carried out by the federal government.
Back in JUly, Meta Public Affairs Director Dani Lever confirmed instances of censorship from Facebook when it came to the assassination attempt, but revealed it had been an error that put the clamp on posts show the now-iconic image of Trump’s fist raised in the air.
“This was an error. This fact check was initially applied to a doctored photo showing the secret service agents smiling, and in some cases our systems incorrectly applied that fact check to the real photo,’ Lever wrote at the time.
‘This has been fixed, and we apologize for the mistake.’
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Meta confirmed the dinner between Zuckerberg and Trump on Wednesday, saying he and other members of his team had been invited to talk about the incoming administration.
During the race, Zuckerberg notably did not offer any endorsement – but he did label Trump’s response to the Butler assassination attempt as ‘badass’ when asked about giving one.
‘Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,’ Zuckerberg, 40, said during an interview at Meta HQ in Menlo Park, California, in July.
‘On some level as an American, it’s like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight,’ the Facebook founder added.
‘And I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.’
He also complained how senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to ‘censor’ certain COVID-19 content during the pandemic – something he said he regrets.
‘We made some choices that, with the benefit of hindsight and new information, we wouldn’t make today,’ Zuckerberg said in August.
‘I feel strongly that we should not compromise our content standards due to pressure from any administration in either direction – and we’re ready to push back if something like this happens again.’
