Zuckerberg’s rightward policy shift puts Meta staffers on edge, targets Apple

Published

4 months ago

February 14, 2025

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Priscilla Chan, left, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Lauren Sanchez are among guests attending Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th U.S. president in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2025.

Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg kicked off 2025 with an Instagram video that outlined his vision for what he called restoring “free expression” to Meta‘s platforms and for working with President Donald Trump to push back on governments Zuckerberg said have gone after American companies and stifled innovation.

What Zuckerberg didn’t say in his five-minute monologue was that Meta would use its own internal moderators to censor employee criticism of his plan. He also didn’t say that by cozying up to the new president, his company might be able to shift Trump’s ire in the direction of Meta’s loathed rival Apple.

For Meta’s staff of almost 75,000 people, the singular power of its 40-year-old founder and CEO is more evident than ever in the company’s rightward shift since Trump’s election victory in November and inauguration in January.

On Feb. 6, Zuckerberg visited the White House in order “to discuss how Meta can help the administration defend and advance American tech leadership abroad,” Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said in a post on X.

Based on interviews with over a dozen current and former employees who asked not to be named in order to speak candidly on what they see happening inside the company, there’s a profound sense of uncertainty as to how Meta’s culture will change in the coming years of Trump’s second presidency.

At headquarters in Silicon Valley, tensions are palpable as Meta goes through its latest round of job cuts. In January, the company announced plans to lay off its lowest performers, or 5% of its overall workforce, and began the cuts this week.

Meta has been trying to thwart pushback from employees by censoring criticism within its Workplace in-house social network, people familiar with the matter said. Employees who left comments that management viewed as negative on Workplace were told that their statements would be used in performance reviews, potentially affecting their employment, they said.

Sources also told CNBC that employees who might otherwise leave because of their disillusionment with policy changes are concerned about quitting now because of how they will be perceived by future employers given that Meta has said publicly that it’s weeding out “low performers.”

Chart Master: Meta vs. the rest of the Magnificent 7

Meta, like many of its tech peers, began downsizing in 2022 and has continued to trim around the edges. The company cut 21,000 jobs, or nearly a quarter of its workforce, in 2022 and 2023. Among those who lost their jobs were members of the civic integrity group, which was known to be outspoken in its criticism of Zuckerberg’s leadership.

Some big changes are now taking place that appear to directly follow the lead of Trump at the expense of company employees and users of the platforms, the people familiar with the matter said.

Most notably, Meta recently ended its diversity, equity and inclusion program and relaxed content-moderation guidelines, both areas that Trump has attacked in his war on “woke policies.”

When Meta filed its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission in late January, the document noted its drastic shifts, listing them in the section about business risks.

“In January 2025, we announced certain changes to our content policies and enforcement efforts to further free expression on our platform and mitigate over-enforcement of certain of our content policies,” Meta said. “If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brands, our ability to maintain or expand our base of users, marketers, and developers may be impaired, and our business and financial results may be harmed.”

Meta declined to comment.

Taking aim at Apple

Zuckerberg is willing to take on such risks because of the potential benefits that come with smoothing his relationship with Trump, the people familiar with the matter said. In contrast to Meta’s previous strategy of advocating for an even playing field across the tech industry, Zuckerberg now sees opportunities to gain a strategic advantage for his company, the people said.

One major concern for Zuckerberg is Elon Musk’s central position in the Trump administration, where he’s focused on slashing regulations. Meta competes with Musk’s X and is also investing heavily in artificial intelligence, an area of particular interest to Musk and his startup xAI. Musk’s role in the White House could put Meta at a disadvantage when it comes to policies surrounding AI.

But more than AI and Musk, Zuckerberg is looking for a leg up on Apple, the people said.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, center left, attends Apple’s iPhone 16 launch in New York City, Sept. 20, 2024.

Timothy A. Clary | Afp | Getty Images

Zuckerberg hopes that Meta’s improved relationship with the White House could help put pressure on the iPhone maker, after a yearslong battle between the two tech heavyweights. Both companies were targets of antitrust suits from the U.S. government.

The Meta founder is still upset about Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy update, which made it harder for Meta to track users across the internet and which put a $10 billion dent in the company’s 2022 advertising revenue. Internally, this period has come to be known among some Meta employees as “the Tim Cook recession.”

Many app developers, including Spotify and Epic Games, have battled Apple either in public or in court over the company’s app store rules and control over its ecosystem. Zuckerberg has been one of the loudest critics of Apple in the past, but he has become even more antagonistic toward the company in recent public interviews. Sources told CNBC that it’s all part of an effort to shift antitrust scrutiny off Meta and onto Apple.

In a January interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg claimed that Apple is becoming less innovative and that it’s putting resources toward preventing third parties from creating hardware peripherals that integrate smoothly into Apple’s mobile operating system.

“They build stuff like Air Pods, which are cool, but they’ve just thoroughly hamstrung the ability for anyone else to build something that can connect to the iPhone in the same way,” Zuckerberg said.

Meta’s business has recovered from its downdraft that followed the iOS changes, due mostly to the company’s investments in AI and the new capabilities they’ve provided to advertisers. In January, the company reported $160.6 billion in advertising revenue for 2024, up nearly 40% from 2021. The company’s shares have been on a huge upswing since a brutal 2022, quadrupling over the past two years and closing at a record $728.56 on Thursday.

Zuckerberg told Rogan that Meta’s profit would double if Apple stopped applying “random rules” that tax his company.

Meta’s actions against Apple aren’t limited to the U.S. In one of the company’s first steps this year to apply more policy pressure on Apple, Meta filed a complaint against the iPhone maker in late January with Brazil’s competition regulator, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense.

In the complaint, Meta alleged that Apple’s iOS update unfairly singles out third-party apps but not its own. Meta has been considering an antitrust complaint against Apple in Brazil since last year, a source familiar with the matter said.

Apple and X did not respond to requests for comment.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, right, and Joel Kaplan, the company’s vice president of global public policy, leave the Elysee Palace in Paris after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, May 23, 2018.

Aurelien Morissard | IP3 | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Not afraid to ruffle some feathers

Leading Meta’s new policy charge is Joel Kaplan, a former White House deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush with longstanding ties to the Republican Party.

Kaplan took over Meta’s top policy position from Nick Clegg, a former U.K. deputy prime minister, who said in January that he would step down after seven years at the company.

Other notable Republicans at Meta include Vice President of Global Public Policy Kevin Martin, a former Federal Communications Commission chairman under President George W. Bush, and Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Newstead, whom Trump previously appointed as a legal advisor at the State Department.

Kaplan’s ascendency at Meta coupled with the company’s policy changes has solidified a political shift to the right, multiple sources said.

Since joining Meta in 2011 as a policy vice president, Kaplan has built a reputation as an executive who takes calculated risks even if it means upsetting some people internally, the people said.

In 2018, Kaplan made headlines for attending Brett Kavanaugh’s highly contentious Supreme Court confirmation hearing as a personal friend. His appearance caused so much controversy that Meta was forced to address the matter in a statement, saying the “leadership team recognizes that they’ve made mistakes handling the events of the last week and we’re grateful for all the feedback from our employees.”

What may have been a problem for Kaplan at the time is now viewed as a strength. That’s because the executive is seen as an ally to the Republicans in charge, the people said.

Clegg, by contrast, represented a more center-left position, they said. He was vocal in his support of banning Trump from Facebook’s platform after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, while Kaplan was noticeably more reluctant about such a move, a person familiar with the matter said. Kaplan has also favored less strict content moderation policies, the person said.

Meta in January agreed to pay $25 million as part of a settlement with Trump over the company’s decision to suspend his accounts following the Capitol riot. In January 2023, Meta said it was reinstating Trump on its platform after the two-year suspension.

The company’s efforts to win favor with Trump seem to be working, at least based on what the president has publicly said.

After Kaplan announced Meta’s major content-moderation and related policy shifts in early January on “Fox and Friends,” Trump appeared to be impressed.

“Honestly, I think they’ve come a long way. Meta, Facebook, I think they’ve come a long way,” Trump told reporters during a Jan. 7 press conference. About Kaplan, Trump said, “The man was very impressive.”

— CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

Watch: Zuckerberg feels he’s beyond criticism anymore, says Wired’s Steven Levy

Technology

Easy returns cause big trouble for Amazon sellers, but return rates show signs of slowing

Published

1 day ago

June 21, 2025

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Easy returns cause big trouble for Amazon sellers, but return rates show signs of slowing

Returns on Amazon are free and easy for shoppers, but they’re risky and expensive for the small businesses that sell a majority of the goods on the world’s biggest e-commerce site. Returns have driven some sellers to exit the popular Fulfillment by Amazon program, while others told CNBC they’d like to leave the platform altogether.

At the heart of the problem is a big rise in returns fraud, which has led to customers mistakenly receiving used products when they ordered something new. In two particularly egregious examples involving baby products described to CNBC, Amazon sent customers used diapers and a chiller with someone else’s rotten breastmilk inside.

“I really don’t think that consumers understand how many small businesses are on Amazon and how their return habits affect small businesses and families like mine,” said Rachelle Baron, owner of Beau and Belle Littles, which sells reusable swim diapers on Amazon.

Baron said her business tanked after a return incident with Amazon. The e-commerce platform shipped soiled swim diapers to customers after the used baby products had been returned to Amazon, Baron said.

“There was actually two diapers that were sent out that were poopy,” she said.

In 2024, nearly 14% of all U.S. retail returns were fraudulent, up from 5% in 2018, according to a report by the National Retail Federation. In total, the report found that returns cost retailers $890 billion in 2024.

Amazon started charging sellers in its fulfillment program (FBA) a new fee in June 2024 for items that exceed certain return rate thresholds. Sellers who sign up for FBA rely on Amazon for logistics, including shipping, packing and returns.

In September, a couple months after the fee went into effect, e-commerce group Helium 10 saw return rates for U.S. Amazon sellers drop nearly 5%.

“It’s forcing the seller to have higher quality listings and higher quality products,” said Helium 10 General Manager Zoe Lu.

Amazon has also started adding a warning label to some “frequently returned items,” which could be contributing to the dip.

Rising prices

However, the new fee may also be leading to rising prices.

One survey by e-commerce analysis company SmartScout found that 65% of sellers said they raised prices in 2024 directly because of Amazon fee changes. Other sellers told CNBC returns fraud is the reason they’ve raised prices.

In total, CNBC talked to seven Amazon sellers to find out how they’re handling the rising cost of returns.

“We’re running at about just over 1% net profit on Amazon, totally due to fraud and return abuse,” said Lorie Corlett, who sells Sterling Spectrum protective cases for hot wheels. She said her return rate is 4% on Amazon and only 1% on other marketplaces like Walmart. “It’s really Amazon that’s accountable at the end of the day. People would stop doing it if Amazon held them accountable.”

Amazon told CNBC it has no tolerance for fraudulent returns and that it takes action against some scammers. Those measures include denying refunds and requiring customer identity verification.

Mike Jelliff sells professional music gear through his GeekStands brand on Amazon and eight other marketplaces. He said his return rate on Amazon is three times higher than the average he sees elsewhere.

“On eBay, we’re allowed to block specific customers out,” Jelliff said. “But on Amazon, that customer is still allowed to repurchase from us.”

Jelliff showed CNBC the system of about 40 cameras he’s installed in his Tyler, Texas, warehouse to track every outgoing item, incoming return and unboxing. He uses the images when filing appeals with Amazon, including when customers request refunds claiming they never receive an item. He keeps a blacklist of repeat offenders who commit this kind of fraud and those who return used and damaged items, which become a total loss for him.

Amazon has made some improvements to its returns process, said Jelliff, who doesn’t rely on FBA. This includes Amazon allowing small businesses to make multiple appeals when fighting a fraudulent return. Amazon has also let Jelliff opt-out of automatic return labels for items above $100 starting in 2023, and his return rate has been dropping since.

Mike Jelliff at his GeekStands warehouse in Tyler, Texas, on June 6, 2025. Jelliff sees three times more returns of his professional music gear on Amazon, compared to the average on other marketplaces like eBay and Walmart.

Jacob Schatz

Why returns are destroyed

Figuring out which returns are fraudulent and which are ready for re-sale is labor-intensive and item specific, experts said. That creates plenty of room for error.

“Because it’s such a large operation, things are missed,” said Lu of Helium 10. “I think they’re probably missed on the margins, but these stories are very impactful because it is such a reckoning for the brand.”

Ceres Chill founder Lisa Myers, who once relied on Amazon to handle returns for her business as part of FBA, has one of these stories.

In 2023, Amazon sent one of Ceres Chill’s products to a customer with someone else’s rotten breastmilk inside, said Myers, adding that the customer wrote a review saying, “she will never forget that smell.”

“To have something, and I don’t mean to be dramatic, but dangerous, somebody else’s bodily fluids in your kitchen rotting in something that you had intended to use for your child is unacceptable,” Myers said. “That’s the moment I broke down crying and just sat down and thought, I have no idea how this could have happened.”

Myers said she left FBA after the incident, leaving behind benefits like having her products labeled with Amazon’s Prime badge.

“It hurts our business to not participate in Fulfilled by Amazon,” Myers said. “It’s just we’re not willing to, we will never put profit over the safety and, frankly, mental health of our customers.”

Instead, Myers outsources all her returns to baby resell specialist Goodbuy Gear, which is on track to re-sell 200,000 returned baby products this year.

Re-selling responsibly

Kristin Langenfeld started GoodBuy Gear when she was a new mom struggling to find a good quality, used jogging stroller.

“We’ve spent the last nine years building out a database that has all of the products and the variations, the common issues, the recalls,” Langenfeld said. “For some of these, there’s 40 points that we inspect on the item itself, and it’s really complicated.”

Langenfeld showed CNBC the process at her warehouse in Malvern, Pennsylvania, where each item is inspected for about 15 minutes and is typically handled by at least four employees. The resource intensive process is paying off. She says 33 new sellers signed up in 2024, three times more than the previous year. And with business growing 50% year-over-year, she’s upgrading to a bigger warehouse in Columbus, Ohio.

She was inspired to handle returns after visiting a major retailer’s returns warehouse five years ago.

“Taped on the floor were signs that said ‘incinerate,’ ‘destroy,'” she said.

Returns generated an estimated 29 million metric tons of carbon emissions in 2024, and 9.8 billion pounds of returns ended up in landfills, according to reverse logistics software provider Optoro.

Amazon has faced criticism for destroying millions of pounds of unused products. In 2022, Amazon told CNBC it was “working towards a goal of zero product disposal,” but wouldn’t give a timeline for that ambition. Three years later, that goal is still in the works, with Amazon telling CNBC in a statement, “The vast majority of returns are resold as new or used, returned to selling partners, liquidated, or donated.”

In 2020, Amazon added two new options for sellers to re-home returns. “Grade and Resell” allows all U.S. FBA sellers to have Amazon rate the return and mark it as “used” before re-selling it. FBA Liquidation allows sellers to recoup some losses by offloading palettes of goods for re-sale on the secondary market through liquidation partners like Liquidity Services.

There’s also an FBA Donations program that’s been around since 2019, allowing sellers to automatically offer eligible overstock and returns to charity groups through the non-profit Good360. Amazon told CNBC these seller programs give a second life to more than 300 million items a year.

For shoppers wanting to keep returns from incineration or landfills, Amazon also has options.

Amazon Resale has used and open-box goods, Amazon Renewed sells refurbished items and Amazon Outlet sells overstock. Daily deal site Woot!, bought by Amazon for $110 million in 2010, also sells scratched and dented items. Customers can also trade in certain electronics, like Amazon devices, phones and tablets, for Amazon gift cards or send them to the company’s certified recycler.

“I hope the change that we’re able to make as a country is that we stop making crap,” Langenfeld said. “We should make high quality products that are meant for resale.”

Technology

Meta approached Perplexity before massive Scale AI deal

Published

2 days ago

June 20, 2025

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Meta approached Perplexity before massive Scale AI deal

Meta approached artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI about a potential takeover bid before ultimately investing $14.3 billion into Scale AI, CNBC confirmed on Friday.

The two companies did not finalize a deal, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.

One person familiar with the talks said it was “mutually dissolved,” while another person familiar with the matter said Perplexity walked away from a potential deal.

Bloomberg earlier reported the talks between Meta and Perplexity. Perplexity declined to comment. Meta did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

Meta’s attempt to purchase Perplexity serves as the latest example of Mark Zuckerberg‘s aggressive push to bolster his company’s AI efforts amid fierce competition from OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet. Zuckerberg has grown agitated that rivals like OpenAI appear to be ahead in both underlying AI models and consumer-facing apps, and he is going to extreme lengths to hire top AI talent, as CNBC has previously reported.

Why ether ETF inflows have come roaring back from the dead

Published

2 days ago

June 20, 2025

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Why ether ETF inflows have come roaring back from the dead

Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Ether ETFs have finally come to life this year after some started to fear they may be becoming zombie funds.

Collectively, the funds tracking the price of spot ether are on pace for their sixth consecutive week of inflows and eight positive week in the last nine, according to SoSoValue.

The second largest cryptocurrency has become more attractive to institutions in recent weeks largely due to recent regulatory momentum in the U.S. around stablecoins – many of which run on the Ethereum network – the successful IPO of Circle, the issuer of the second-largest stablecoin; and new leadership at the Ethereum Foundation.

“What we’re seeing is institutional recalibration,” said Ben Kurland, CEO at crypto charting and research platform DYOR. “After the initial ETH ETF approval fizzled without a price pop, smart money started quietly building positions. They’re betting not on price momentum but on positioning ahead of utility unlocks like staking access, options listings, and eventually inflows from retirement platforms.”

The first year of ether ETFs, which launched in July 2024, has been characterized by weak demand. While the funds have had spikes in inflows, they’ve trailed far behind bitcoin ETFs in both inflows and investor attention – amassing about $3.9 billion in net inflows since listing versus bitcoin ETFs’ $36 billion in their first year of trading.

“With increasing acceptance of crypto on Wall Street, especially now as a means for payments and remittances, investors are being drawn to ETH ETFs,” said Chris Rhine, head of liquid active strategies at Galaxy Digital.

Additionally, he added, the CME basis on ether – or the price difference between ether futures and the spot price – is higher than that of bitcoin, giving arbitrageurs an opportunity to profit by going long on ether ETFs while shorting futures (a common trading strategy) and contributing to the uptrend in ether ETF inflows.

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Ether (ETH) 1 month

Despite the uptrend in inflows, the price of ether itself is negative for this month and flat over the past month.

For the year, it’s down 25% as it’s been suffering from an identity crisis fueled by uncertainty about Ethereum’s value proposition, weaker revenue since its last big technical upgrade and increasing competition from Solana. Market volatility driven by geopolitical uncertainty this year has not helped.

In March, Standard Chartered slashed its ether price target by more than half. However, the firm also said the coin could still see a turnaround this year.

Since last week’s big spike in inflows, they’ve “slowed but stayed net positive, suggesting conviction, not hype,” Kurland said. “The market looks like a heart monitor, but the buyers are treating it like a long-term infrastructure bet.”