Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the U.S. government under President Donald Trump should step in to prevent the European Union from fining U.S. tech companies for antitrust and other violations.
“I think the strategic advantage of the United States is that we have some of the most powerful companies in the world, and I think part of the U.S. strategy should be to protect them,” Zuckerberg said on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
He added that he believes Trump, as the new president, supports that approach. “I think he just wants America to win,” Zuckerberg said.
Multi-billion dollar fines
Zuckerberg has criticized the EU for the fines it has imposed on U.S. tech giants over the past two decades, saying they totaled “more than $30 billion.” In November last year, Meta was fined 797 million euros for violating EU antitrust rules, which included imposing unfair terms on advertising providers.
He called such penalties “almost like a tariff” on American tech companies, criticizing President Joe Biden’s administration for inaction.
“If another country were disrupting an industry that’s important to us, the U.S. government would probably find a way to put pressure on us,” he said. “But here we got the exact opposite result — the U.S. government led the crackdown on companies, giving the EU a free hand to do whatever it wanted with American companies.”
Changes in Meta Policy
Zuckerberg’s appearance on Rogan’s podcast comes just days after he announced the end of Meta’s fact-checking program, moving to a “community notes” model. The move is seen by many as an attempt to bring the company closer to the Trump administration, which has previously criticized its content moderation policies as censorship with a left-wing political slant.
Meta also announced on Friday that it was ending its diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) programs, citing changes in the “legal and policy landscape” as a key factor, Politico reported.
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