Making The World A Better Place Is So Last Year

The Meta Platforms CEO publicly committed parts of his vast fortune to causes like immigration reform and voter access. He spoke out about combating poverty and hunger and stressed the importance of equality.

But in a flurry of announcements last week, Zuckerberg confirmed that he's had a change of heart. Now, he's whittled his ambitions simply to tech overlord. In getting rid of fact checkers and loosening the rules on what users can say on Meta's platforms, Zuckerberg unleashed a new era of heightened misinformation and abusive speech. At the same time, he ended the tech giant's commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Zuckerberg and Meta are an extreme case, as those in the tech sector often are. But across corporate America, the trend is pointing in the same direction: CEOs are spending much less time, energy and money trying to publicly position themselves as change agents.

This week, Starbucks said it would end the practice in order to help reinvigorate the brand. Its management does not seem particularly worried about blowback or being labelled flip-floppers.

Plenty of these corporate reversals are indeed a straightforward response to where the political winds are blowing - towards the right and President-elect Trump. Zuckerberg admitted as much in his announcement, justifying his decision by saying "the recent election also feels like a cultural tipping point". The company is doing the same calculus as many others right now: it would rather be called a hypocrite by those on the left than become a target of the right for "woke" policies.