Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made his endorsement decision for the 2024 election – declining to endorse anyone at all.
Zuckerberg, 40, said he doesn’t plan on playing a major role in the 2024 election, in an interview with Bloomberg.
He noted that he has “done some stuff personally in the past,” adding that “I’m not planning on doing that this time, and that includes not endorsing either of the candidates.”
Other tech leaders, such as Elon Musk of X, Tesla, and SpaceX, officially backed former president Donald Trump after the attempt on his life last Saturday during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Trump was struck in the ear, while a former fire chief, Corey Comperatore, 50, was shot and killed as he shielded his family from gunfire.
The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, was killed by Secret Service snipers.
A number of former Democratic donors have also backed Trump, including Palantir advisor Jacob Helberg and Sequoia Capital Partner Shaun Maguire, The Hill reported. Venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz are also supporting Trump in the presidential race, according to Reuters.
While declining to endorse Trump, Zuckerberg told Bloomberg that “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.”
He added: “On some level as an American, it’s like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight, and I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.”
Zuckerberg’s decision to try to stay out of politics this election cycle comes as Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is also looking to limit political content on its platforms.
In February, Instagram revealed that it would stop proactively recommending political posts. Users would have to change their settings if they still want to receive recommendations for political content.
“The main thing that I hear from people is that they actually want to see less political content on our services because they come to our services to connect with people. So, that’s what we’re going to do,” Zuckerberg told Bloomberg.
“We give people control over this, but we’re generally trying to recommend less political content,” he added. “So, I think you’re going to see our services play less of a role in this election than they have in the past.”
Meta has called out Trump on a number of occasions for posts with misinformation and that crossed its platforms’ rules. For about two years after the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, Trump’s accounts on Facebook and Instagram were suspended, a move Trump still appears to be bothered by.
On July 9, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “All I can say is that if I’m elected President, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time. We already know who you are. DON’T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!”
Trump brought up his disagreements with Zuckerberg once more during a separate interview with Bloomberg.
Speaking about regulating the tech industry, Trump said: “Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m for TikTok because you need competition. If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram, and that’s, you know, that’s Zuckerberg.”