MMA, MAGA and Meta: What now for the social media giant’s Irish operations as Zuckerberg ditches DEI for Donald 

A push for diversity and inclusion is at odds with Mark Zuckerberg’s new views

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg leaves The Merrion Hotel in Dublin. The Meta CEO wants to rebrand and has announced a series of significant changes to the company, including an end to its third-party fact-checking programme. Picture: Niall Carson/PA

'You only start one of these companies if you believe in giving people a voice,” a transformed Mark Zuckerberg declared during his appearance on Joe Rogan as the podcast host effectively baptised him into the new and unimproved Make America Great Again movement.

Debuting his conveniently timed policy changes to Meta on the Joe Rogan Experience, Zuckerberg, who actually started Facebook to rate the attractiveness of his female peers at Harvard, announced the company’s departure from censorship and moderation after years of “massive institutional pressure” to limit content based on ideological grounds.

Over the past week, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads, announced a series of significant changes, including the end of its third-party fact-checking programme, which is to be replaced with a community notes model previously popularised by social media rival X, formerly Twitter.

It also said the company would lift restrictions previously imposed on certain controversial topics across its platforms, with the new programme set to be rolled out in the US over the next few months.

Leading this shift is Joel Caplan, Meta’s newly appointed head of global policy. A conservative lobbyist and long-time Meta employee, Caplan replaces Nick Clegg, the former Liberal Democrats leader in Britain.

The company also announced three new board members, including Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) chief executive Dana White, who is a long-time colleague and friend of Rogan as well as a member of Trump’s increasingly weird inner circle, further strengthening ties between Meta and the president-elect.

Zuckerberg’s appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast was not an interview but, rather, an induction. For years, the CEO has been viewed by conservatives as a Silicon Valley liberal who worked happily with the Biden administration to crack down on misinformation and hate speech. Zuckerberg, however, is looking to rebrand, with Rogan’s endorsement of the tech mogul signalling to long-time Trump supporters that the Facebook founder is no longer the enemy but one of them.

This public transformation aligns Zuckerberg with an emergent political-cultural movement rooted in the marriage of MMA and Maga.

While an odd intersection at first glance, the relationship between the two becomes clearer when tracing the UFC’s success to Trump’s influence.

Following widespread backlash from conservatives in the late 1990s, the UFC was effectively banned from several US states for its extreme “no rules” approach to fighting. The organisation was on its knees, fighting for views while lawmakers did what they could to prevent it from growing. That was until White received a call from billionaire businessman Trump, who invited the UFC to put on a show in his mammoth Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City.

This partnership, combined with the UFC’s venture into reality television, catapulted the organisation to mainstream success.

Today, the UFC is valued at approximately €11.5bn and its long-standing ties with Trump remain unshaken.

But Zuckerberg’s pivot into the world of masculinity, MMA, and Maga is not just a personal journey but one he has vowed to take Meta on with him.

“I think it’s one thing to say we want to be welcoming and make a good environment for everyone, and I think it’s another to basically say that masculinity is bad,” Zuckerberg told the Rogan podcast.

“I just think we swung culturally to that part of the spectrum where it’s all like, ‘Masculinity is toxic — we have to, like, get rid of it,’” the Meta CEO said, before adding that a culture that “celebrates aggression a bit more has its own merits that are really positive”.

ABANDONING its previous emphasis on diversity and inclusion, Meta has recently committed to evaluating people as individuals and sourcing from a range of candidate pools, without making hiring decisions based on protected class.

Yet, by the numbers, it is clear that male employees do not struggle at Meta. Men outnumber women by almost two to one across the company globally.

Meanwhile, its Irish operation, which currently employs more than 2,000 people at its Grand Canal offices in Dublin, reported a mean gender pay gap of 19.2% last year, up from just over 14% in 2023.

This major and widening gap was also achieved before Meta was infected with “anti-woke” rhetoric.

The question now is how Zuckerberg’s comments and political shift will impact Meta’s operations on this side of the Atlantic, and what the company’s Irish leader makes of the CEO’s descent into the Maga pipeline.

In April 2023, Anne O’Leary was named the new head of Meta Ireland.

Previously the long-standing boss of Vodafone, the Cork woman is also the vice president of the company’s EMEA global business group, leading a team that sells ad campaigns to businesses across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Throughout her period with Vodafone, O’Leary remained a strong advocate for women in business, regularly speaking publicly on the topic.

Cork native Anne O’Leary is head of Meta in Europe and has been Ireland's strongest advocate for women in business.

The telecommunications company was one of the first in Ireland to implement fertility and pregnancy policies.

The policy also included extended paid leave of 10 days for those impacted by pregnancy loss.

Vodafone also offered 10 paid working days’ leave for those directly undergoing fertility treatment.

Last October, Ms O’Leary received an honorary doctorate from University College Cork, where she was commended for her charitable works and for advancing the position of women in the workplace.

In her citation for the honorary doctorate, Professor Thia Hennessy, head of the UCC College of Business and Law, also paid tribute to O’Leary’s focus on gender and family issues.

“She was a pioneer amongst business leaders in accommodating
fertility treatment, menopause, and victims of domestic violence among others.

“Her relentless focus on developing female talent resulted in the leadership team of Vodafone being 56% female when she left the company in 2022.

“In recognition of her achievements, she was appointed by the State to advise Better Balance for Better Business, an initiative focused on advancing the position of women in business,” Hennessy said.

UCC president John O’Halloran also commended O’Leary for her “ability to ally individual achievement with a contribution to the greater good.”

Receiving her doctorate, O’Leary said the achievement reflected “the importance of fostering innovation and inclusivity in the workplace”.

She added: “Together, we can shape a more inclusive, open, and equitable future, ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to contribute and succeed.”

O’Leary has her work cut out for her. Her comments until this point on the need for diversity and inclusion now stand fundamentally at odds with everything her boss has publicly stated over the last week.

In addition to Zuckerberg’s comments, Meta has also announced even more global layoffs, with its latest round targeting a 5% reduction in total staff.

It is understood that Irish workers will not be immune from these cuts, with employees who have so far survived the company’s many headcount reductions fearful once again of more redundancies.

The Irish Examiner also understands that staff are particularly worried about cuts being decided based on individual performance reviews, which could be used to push employees out of the company.

Hence, with additional layoffs and a Trump-aligned attitude coming down the pipeline, Irish Meta staff are in for a tough period, and senior leadership will need to address a glaring question. Are these two viewpoints fundamentally opposed to one another or can O’Leary reconcile her own beliefs with Zuckerberg’s descent into the Maga-sphere?

The Facebook founder has signalled to Trump fans that he is no longer an enemy but now one of them