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Programming note: Platformer will be off Monday for Labor Day. I'm also going to take two rare personal days on Tuesday and Thursday to allow me to attend a wedding outside the country. (A new, back-to-school-themed episode of Hard Fork will still arrive Friday.) As always, you can find our posting schedule here. A year ago today, in the heat of the US presidential campaign, Politico reported that Donald Trump had threatened to put Mark Zuckerberg in prison for "the rest of his life." A soon-to-be-released coffee table book named Save America included a tirade against Meta's CEO from the president, who harbored a grudge over the donations that Zuckerberg and his wife made to support election infrastructure. In reality, Zuckerberg had done nothing to "steer" Facebook against him in 2020; later academic research would find that Facebook and Instagram had little observable effect on the election result at all. But in the book, which bears the familiar hyperbolic and conspiratorial style of his Truth Social posts, Trump accused Zuckerberg of "a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT." Reporter Alex Isentsadt recounted the passage in question: “We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election.” Twelve months later, it seems that all has been forgiven. Meta's concerted effort to win over Trump and his fellow Republicans, which began before the election and went into hyperdrive after Trump's victory, has delivered an extraordinary series of victories to the company. Far from threatening Zuckerberg, Trump now routinely meets with him at the White House — and the executive branch is now aggressively pursuing Meta's anti-regulation agenda both in the United States and abroad. On Thursday, Bloomberg revealed that Trump's threat to levy "substantial" tariffs on countries that impose taxes on digital services came days after Zuckerberg raised the issue with the president in the White House. The men also discussed Meta's other lobbying priorities, including artificial intelligence and the European Union's regulations on large platforms, Bloomberg reported. “I will stand up to Countries that attack our incredible American Tech Companies,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. The company has not gotten everything it wants from the administration — Trump so far has not, or will not, force the Federal Trade Commission to drop its antitrust lawsuit against Meta. (The FTC is also pursuing a spurious "censorship" investigation into Meta and other social platforms.) The company faces an increasingly hostile environment in state legislatures and from state attorneys general. And many of Trump's actions benefit most of the big platforms rather than Meta in particular. Still, it's worth pausing to consider the full scope of Meta's rightward lurch — and what it has gotten in return. This year the company ended its fact-checking programs in the United States, turned off many of its content moderation systems, and created exceptions to its hate speech policy to allow for dehumanizing speech about immigrants, transgender people and other groups. It also donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration and paid Trump $25 million to settle a lawsuit he filed after the company suspended his account for leading an insurrection against the government. Here's what it has gotten from Trump since. January On January 20, Trump signed an executive order titled "Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” While limited in its effect, it essentially instructed federal agents not to engage in jawboning — calling up platforms like Meta and demanding that posts be removed or down-ranked. (Republicans got very mad about the Biden Administration doing this during the pandemic, when the president accused Meta of being complicit in COVID-19 deaths for not doing enough to remove vaccine-related misinformation.) February Trump issued a memo threatening to retaliate against countries that impose digital service taxes or heavy fines on "cutting-edge American technology companies." "American businesses will no longer prop up failed foreign economies through extortive fines and taxes," he wrote. The memo had its intended effect. India dropped its tax on digital ads in March. New Zealand dropped its digital services tax in May. Canada, which had imposed a 3 percent tax on Meta and other tech giants, rescinded its tax in June as part of trade negotiations with the United States. Italy may follow. May The State Department took up Meta's cause. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the United States would deny visas to foreign officials who implement online speech restrictions on Americans. The move seemingly came in response to the European Union's implementation of the Digital Services Act, which requires large platforms including Meta to take action on "harmful" speech, including hate speech. Meta has criticized the DSA, with Zuckerberg accusing the EU of "censorship" and the company banning political ads in the EU over complaints that its disclosure rules are "unworkable." July US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer announced an investigation into "unfair" trading practices in Brazil, which Trump also hit with a 50 percent tariff. "Among victims of such attacks he cited U.S. social media and other companies," Reuters reported. The country is still considering two different taxes that would affect Meta. August Reuters reported this week that in an extraordinary move, the Trump Administration is considering imposing sanctions on the EU officials who implemented the DSA. The move follows an order from Rubio for US diplomats in Europe to lobby against the DSA, which the administration argues stifles free speech and unfairly penalizes tech companies like Meta. (And yes, the administration is arguing for "free speech" abroad while at home it conducts what law professors call "the gravest assault on freedom of speech at least since the McCarthy era." Among other things the administration is reviewing social media posts made by students and visa applicants to find pretexts to expel them — something that Meta has said nothing about.) What's next? Meta is also warring against the EU over the Digital Markets Act — in particular, an April ruling that the company must change its business model to continue operating in the bloc. The DMA requires Meta to offer users a service is "less personalized" but otherwise equivalent to its normal service; Meta responded by offering users the chance to opt out of personalized advertising in exchange for a subscription fee. The European Commission said that doesn't meet the requirement; Meta says the ruling undermines the entire DMA. The Trump Administration has already criticized the DMA, though perhaps not yet with the same force it has gone after other EU regulations. In any case, don't be surprised if it comes up the next time Zuckerberg goes to the White House. In The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin's mostly fictional 2010 account of the founding of Facebook, a lawyer for Zuckerberg encourages him to settle with the Winklevoss twins, who have accused him of stealing their idea for a college social network. "Pay them," says the lawyer, who is played by Rashida Jones. "In the scheme of things, it's a speeding ticket." In real life, Zuckerberg ultimately did pay that "speeding ticket," paying $65 million to settle the case. A ycear ago, facing the threat of being thrown in jail by a vengeance-obsessed authoritarian, Zuckerberg was similarly pragmatic. A million dollars for the inauguration, $25 million to settle a deplatforming lawsuit — and now he has Trump fighting battles for him around the world. In the end, it barely cost him anything. But it remains to be seen what it will cost everyone else. On the podcast this week: Kevin and I discuss Trump taking a 10 percent stake in Intel. Then, Waymo co-CEO Takedra Mawakana joins us to discuss the company's expansion into New York City and beyond, its relationship with law enforcement, and more. And finally, we check in on the First Family's latest entanglements with tech. Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Amazon | Google | YouTube Sponsored DMV Alert: Your license will be “suspended”A text shows up: “You owe $5 in tolls. 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Get 55% off Incogni’s Unlimited Plan and try it risk-free for 30 days with code PLATFORMER Governing- Elon Musk’s lawyers asked a judge to block OpenAI from getting documents from Meta after OpenAI said Musk tried to get Mark Zuckerberg on board with his $97.4 billion bid for the company. (Reuters)
- Musk is hyping up Grok by touting its ability to generate images of women and has seemingly fixated on “Ani,” regularly sharing images of the scantily clad anime companion on X. (Miles Klee / Rolling Stone)
- A hacking campaign linked to the Chinese government that previously compromised nine US telecoms companies has expanded and struck at least 200 American organizations and 80 countries, the FBI said. (Joseph Menn / Washington Post)
- A look at how the potential breakup of Google will shape the future of AI and the next generation of startups, according to this law professor and former government official. (Tim Wu / New York Times)
- YouTube reversed course and bringing back right-wing conspiracy network One America News to YouTube TV as it continues to negotiate with Fox Corp. over a carriage deal. Even more off-putting than the news itself is the ecstatic quote executive Justin Connolly offered as part of the news. (Oliver Darcy / Status)
- FTC chair Andrew Ferguson warned Google not to filter or suppress emails sent by Republicans over Gmail. Google has said its spam filters are not politically biased; it has been less than two years since a previous investigation into this topic found no evidence of bias. (Hans Nichols / Axios)
- Republicans in the House opened a dubious investigation into alleged bias in Wikipedia entries related to Palestine. (Emily Brooks / The Hill)
- OpenAI and Anthropic briefly opened up their AI models for joint safety testing, which OpenAI cofounder Wojciech Zaremba said is increasingly important. (Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch)
- Anthropic will start training its AI models on user data, including new chat transcripts and coding sessions, and extending its data retention policy to five years. Users can choose to opt out. (Hayden Field / The Verge)
- "Vibe hacking" is becoming a legitimate cybersecurity threat, according to a new Anthropic report, as AI serves as a technical consultant and active operator that can save time for hackers. (Hayden Field / The Verge)
- 4chan and Kiwi Farms sued the UK’s Ofcom in the US over its age verification law, alleging that the agency’s threats and fines constitute “foreign judgements that would restrict speech under US law.” (Jason Koebler and Matthew Gault / 404 Media)
- Apple warned the UK’s competition watchdog that its proposed “EU-style rules” are “bad for users and bad for developers.” The UK said it rejected Apple’s characterization of the rules. (Chris Vallance / BBC)
- Apple removed iTorrent, the iPhone torrenting client, from AltStore PAL’s alternative iOS marketplace in the EU. (Jess Weatherbed / The Verge)
- South Korea has banned the use of mobile phones and other smart devices during classes in elementary and middle schools. (Choe Sang-Hun / New York Times)
- A look at how AI companionship robots have become a part of the everyday lives of seniors living alone in South Korea and filling the gaps in human care. (Michelle Kim / Rest of World)
- A profile of Egune AI, a startup focused on building LLMs specializing in the Mongolian language, culture and traditions, as part of a growing number of LLMs aimed at underserved populations. (Viola Zhou / Rest of World)
- The rise of “deadbots” — AI avatars of deceased people — could lead to ethical issues when it comes to using their likenesses for commercial purposes, researchers warn. (Chloe Veltman / NPR)
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