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A further sign that Big Tech was willing to play ball with the incoming administration came as Meta announced an outspoken ally of President-elect Donald Trump would be joining its board.

The art of the deal appeared at play once more, and this time it was bringing Silicon Valley together with the world famous octagon. In a statement released Monday by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s board of directors would be making some additions which included UFC President Dana White.

The announcement, which also named Exor NV CEO John Elkann and former Microsoft executive Charlie Songhurst, expressed, “I’m excited to kick off the year with some news we’ve been working on for a while: Dana White, John Elkann, and Charlie Songhurst are joining Meta’s board of directors. We have massive opportunities ahead in AI, wearables, and the future of social media, and our board will help us achieve our vision.”

“Dana is the President and CEO of UFC, and he has built it into one of the most valuable, fastest growing, and most popular sports enterprises in the world. I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand,” continued the statement which White shared on X and wrote, “I love social media. And I’m excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies.”

I love social media. And I’m excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies. @Meta pic.twitter.com/Amh5W728og

— danawhite (@danawhite) January 6, 2025

In late December, it had been reported that Zuckerberg’s Meta had donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration committee, and he’d told Bloomberg in an interview, “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 bada** things I’ve ever seen in my life.”

He’d been one of a number of Big Tech executives journeying to Palm Beach, Florida to seek an audience with Trump at Mar-a-Lago ahead of Inauguration Day, which included Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos and Apple CEO Tim Cook.

For his part, Bezos directed his e-retailer to chip in $1 million toward Trump’s inauguration in addition to contributing to streaming the ceremony live on Prime Video.

As it happened, the newfound favor for the GOP leader came as the president-elect had taken the side of skilled foreign workers in a social media spat over H-1B visas, a matter near and dear to the heart of the tech industry.

According to data from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services previously reported, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft had laid off at least 55,000 employees combined since 2022 while in the same period of time they had secured a combined 61,000 H-1B visas.

While White had long been outspoken in favor of Trump, often seen with the president at UFC events, it hadn’t been until July 2024 that the restrictions that had been placed on the once and future commander-in-chief by Facebook after Jan. 6, 2021, though the iconic image of Trump at his July 13, 2024, Butler, Pennsylvania rally had initially been censored, prompting an apology from the company.

The UFC president had previously expressed his favor in setting up a fight between Zuckerberg and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk when the duo had been teasing a potential matchup. White had told TMZ, “This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world. Bigger than anything that’s ever been done, it would break all pay-per-view records, these guys would raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charity.”

Reactions to the announcement were widely in favor of the addition as censorship concerns had remained paramount on the right throughout President Joe Biden’s administration.

Congrats to @danawhite
Huge move by META, glad to see it.

— Chris Pavlovski ‍☠️ (@chrispavlovski) January 6, 2025

Fantastic! Congratulations!
I simply ask that all shadow-banned and suppressed pages be set free.

— Conservative Momma (@conmomma) January 6, 2025

Wow, huge news for META. Cannot be questioned that with Dana on board it will massively build confidence that they are moving away from some of their older policies. Excited to see where this goes.

— Jolly Roger (@dontcallmeraylo) January 6, 2025

This is awesome. Hopefully good things will come from this.

— Nicole Paulson (@NicolePaul71024) January 7, 2025

Staff Writer–Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.

Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn’t researching current events and their impacts, you’ll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.

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