“Meta’s Right-Wing Shift Triggers Boycotts and Mass User Exodus!”
After Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced sweeping policy changes aligning the company more closely with conservative values ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term, users are abandoning platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp in droves.
The controversial changes include ending Meta’s third-party fact-checking program in the U.S. and scaling back content moderation on political discourse. Instead, the company is introducing a community notes system similar to Elon Musk’s X. Updates to hate speech policies now permit calling LGBTQ individuals mentally ill based on their identities, sparking widespread backlash. Additionally, Meta disbanded its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) team, further fueling criticism.
Zuckerberg isn’t the only tech billionaire cozying up to Trump. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are also set to attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday. However, Meta’s shifts, coupled with Zuckerberg’s direct outreach to the incoming administration, have sparked outrage.
NBC News reviewed hundreds of social media posts where users pledged to delete their accounts, stop posting, or boycott the company. This exodus mirrors the mass departures from X (formerly Twitter) following the 2024 election.
“I no longer feel safe to post on either platform as a queer Chicana woman,” said Marie Valencia, a full-time artist with over 20,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram before she stopped posting. “I’ve seen a steady stream of folks abandoning their profiles too, especially in the past couple of weeks as Meta dismantled DEI and speech protections for those most vulnerable online.”
The backlash highlights growing tensions as users question the role of Big Tech in shaping public discourse under the new administration.
Valencia has transitioned to posting on Bluesky, an alternative to X, and Amigahood, a platform for Latina women. “Meta will become another X,” she said.
Cord Jefferson, director of the Oscar-nominated film American Fiction, announced Sunday that he was leaving Instagram but would stay active on Tumblr. “So many things are getting bleaker and grosser by the day. And while we can’t place the blame for all of it on tech oligarchs, we can place a lot of it at their feet,” Jefferson wrote in his final Instagram post. “I’m doing what little I can to shut the increasingly stupid ideas shaping online spaces like this out of my life.”
Some users are leaving select Meta platforms while continuing to use others. Stanford University law professor Mark Lemley, who represents Meta in an AI copyright dispute, announced Monday that he would drop Meta as a client and reevaluate his use of its services.
“I have struggled with how to respond to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook’s descent into toxic masculinity and Neo-Nazi madness,” Lemley wrote. “While I’ve considered quitting Facebook, I value the connections I have there. It doesn’t seem fair that I should lose that because Zuckerberg is having a mid-life crisis.”
Lemley deactivated his Threads account and pledged to avoid buying products from ads on Facebook or Instagram, opting instead to purchase directly from websites to deny Meta any credit.
Despite these departures, they represent only a small fraction of Meta’s massive user base. Nearly two-thirds of Americans use Facebook, with Instagram boasting nearly 170 million U.S. accounts and WhatsApp almost 100 million. A planned weeklong “Lights Out” boycott of Meta platforms, starting January 19, attracted just a few hundred participants in a Facebook group.
Some users feel trapped by Meta’s dominance, particularly WhatsApp, which serves as a vital tool for communication with family and friends. Others, like influencers and small businesses, rely on Meta platforms for their livelihoods.
Stacy Kess, founder of the nonprofit Equal Access Public Media (EAPM), said she was “disheartened” to see others in the disability community continue posting on Meta platforms after its policy change allowing LGBTQ individuals to be called mentally ill.
“I saw so many people still posting on Instagram and wondered if they even knew about the policy change,” Kess said. “That should be a hard line for both the disability and LGBTQ communities.”
EAPM, which produces accessible news content in video, audio, American Sign Language, and simplified English, has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. However, it issued a statement condemning Meta’s new policy, stating, “EAPM condemns this policy allowing dehumanizing and ableist language. We will continue to post elsewhere.” The organization now has its largest following on Bluesky.
“We don’t see this as moral absolutism,” Kess added. “We’re just living our values by saying, ‘This is not OK.’ We’ll continue to explore other platforms because there are other options.”