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On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, outlined plans to dramatically change the company’s approach to online speech.
Mr. Zuckerberg kept the circle of people who knew his thinking small. Over the next few weeks, Mr. Zuckerberg and his handpicked team discussed the changes in Zoom meetings, conference calls and late-night group chats.
By New Year’s Day, Mr. Zuckerberg was ready to go public with the changes. The process was highly unusual. Meta typically alters policies by inviting employees and others to weigh in. The entire process took just six weeks, blindsiding even employees on his policy and integrity teams.
On Tuesday, most of Meta’s 72,000 employees learned of Mr. Zuckerberg’s plans along with the rest of the world.
In the days since, the moves have drawn applause from conservatives and derision from fact-checking groups. Some employees were shocked and have openly castigated the changes on Meta’s internal message boards.
According to more than a dozen current and former Meta employees, the changes reflect Mr. Zuckerberg’s personal views of how his $1.5 trillion company should be run.
On Friday, Meta told employees it would end its work on diversity, equity and inclusion. The company eliminated its chief diversity officer role, diversity hiring goals, and prioritization of minority-owned businesses when hiring vendors.
More than a dozen current and former Meta employees and executives described his shift as serving a dual purpose. It positions Meta for the political landscape, with conservative power ascendant in Washington. Mr. Zuckerberg is no longer shy about his opinions and wants Meta to reflect them.
Mr. Zuckerberg decided to promote Joel Kaplan to Meta’s head of global public policy. Mr. Kaplan had been instrumental in shaping Meta’s new “Hateful Conduct” policy and deepening ties to the incoming Trump administration.
In an Instagram video on Tuesday, Mr. Zuckerberg said it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Kaplan appeared on Fox & Friends saying Meta’s fact-checking partners “had too much political bias.” Fact-checking groups said they had no role in deciding what Meta did with the content that was fact-checked.
The company loosened rules so people could post statements saying they hated people of certain races, religions or sexual orientations. The company cited political discourse about transgender rights for the change.
On Thursday, the company locked access to the “Hateful Conduct” policy and training materials after The Intercept published excerpts.
This same day at Meta’s offices, facilities managers were instructed to remove tampons from men’s bathrooms, a change that several employees saw as a blow against transgender and nonbinary employees.
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