Dana White Joins Board Of Facebook’s Meta As Company Eyes Major Shakeup
Dana White, longtime CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and a close political ally of President-elect Donald Trump, is joining the board of Facebook parent Meta, just two weeks before Trump takes office for the second time. The move was announced just a day before Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced sweeping changes to the platform’s content moderation strategy, including a move towards the use of an X-style “community notes” feature as opposed to “fact checkers,” many of whom have long been accused of engaging in censorship and political bias.
Zuckerberg — who recently met with President-elect Trump at his Mar-A-Lago estate after a rocky relationship during his first term — announced the news in a Facebook post Monday. “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,” the Facebook founder said of White, who oversees a number of additional business ventures outside the UFC. “I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand.”
White and Zuckerberg pose for a photo at a UFC event
Zuckerberg also announced that auto industry executive John Elkann and technology investor Charlie Songhurst would be joining White as new members of the Meta board of directors. He stated that Elkann, a member of the powerful, multi-generational, will bring an “international perspective” to the company’s board, while Songhurst has extensive experience with Microsoft and AI research. He previously joined the Meta Advisory Group last year to advise on our AI and technology roadmaps and will now be assuming a board role.
“I look forward to working with Dana, Charlie, and John. 2025 is going to be a big year for Meta and I’m excited to have them on board,” Zuckerberg wrote.
Zuckerberg has been practicing martial arts in recent years and has become an avid UFC fan. He has been spotted at several UFC pay-per-view events and once bought out the UFC’s Apex arena — which hosts near weekly fight night events for up and coming fighters — for a private event. The Facebook founder even found himself as a member of future UFC Hall of Fame member Alexander Volkanovski ahead of his title bout against Ilia Topuria last year.
Mark Zuckerberg made it to Alex Volkanovski’s corner at UFC 298 pic.twitter.com/dhgyE8ESeo
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) February 20, 2024
The addition of Dana White on the Meta board of directors could be seen as another sign of Zuckerberg’s seemingly shifting business and political objectives. A longtime ally of the president-elect, White has spoken in favor of Trump at all three Republican National Conventions dating back to 2016 and accompanied him for several notable ring walks ahead of the 2024 Election.
White is fully embedded within Trump’s inner-circle and appeared onstage with him at Mar-A-Lago when victory was in-hand on election night. “This is what happens when the machine comes after you,” White said after taking the stage. “What you’ve seen over the last several years, this is what it looks like. Couldn’t stop him, he keeps going forward, he doesn’t quit, he’s the most resilient hardworking man I’ve ever met in my life.”
Last month, Meta confirmed that the company had donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. Zuckerberg was also one of several tech executives who met with the president-elect at his Palm Beach estate in the weeks following his election victory.
The move comes as Zuckerberg has become increasingly frustrated with his involvement in left-wing political causes, according to multiple sources familiar with the tech mogul’s thinking. Zuckerberg previously spent hundreds of millions of dollars on get-out-the-vote initiatives in 2020, which included funding for scores of unsupervised ballot drop boxes across the country. The Facebook founder’s efforts are widely believed to have benefited Democrats.
Zuckerberg meets with then-President Donald Trump in 2017
“In conversations over the past few years with friends, colleagues and advisers, Mr. Zuckerberg has expressed cynicism about politics after years of bad experiences in Washington,” the New York Times reported earlier this year. “He and others at the top of Meta, the parent company of Facebook, believed that both parties loathed technology and that trying to continue engaging with political causes would only draw further scrutiny to their company”
According to the report, Zuckerberg expressed frustration with blowback towards himself and the company as a whole as a result of his massive involvement with mail-in ballot harvesting in 2020, while attending the Allen and Company conference back in June. He also expressed regret over hiring employees who convinced him to shift to the left on political issues.
On Tuesday, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be undergoing massive changes to its content moderation policies in a shocking video statement. The company will be moving away from “fact checkers,” who have become notorious for allegations of political bias and selective enforcement of “fact checks.” Instead, the company will be moving towards a “community notes” style of content moderation that will allow users to independently fact check claims and attach relevant links. Users are then permitted to rate the fact checks themselves for effectiveness. The practice was popularized by X owner Elon Musk, who runs the service through open source channels.