Meta

White House Releases List of 37 Corporate Donors for Trump's $300M Ballroom Project

| Importance: 9/10

The White House released a list of 37 corporate donors financing Trump’s $300 million ballroom project, including all five of America’s largest tech companies—Google, Amazon, Meta, Apple, and Microsoft—along with crypto firms Ripple and Coinbase, defense contractor Lockheed Martin, …

Trump Google Amazon Meta Apple +5 more pay-to-play conflicts-of-interest corporate-corruption regulatory-capture
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Trump Hosts $250 Million White House Ballroom Fundraiser with Defense and Tech Executives

| Importance: 9/10

President Trump hosted defense and technology executives at a White House ballroom fundraiser for his $250 million renovation project, with major donors including Lockheed Martin, Amazon, Meta, Google, and Palantir. Google’s $22 million settlement with Trump for social media suspension …

Donald Trump Google Amazon Meta Lockheed Martin +2 more corruption conflicts-of-interest pay-to-play institutional-capture self-dealing
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YouTube Pays Trump $24.5M to Settle Suspension Lawsuit, $22M for White House Ballroom

| Importance: 9/10

YouTube agreed to pay Trump $24.5 million to settle his lawsuit over account suspension following the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, with Google dedicating $22 million to Trump’s White House ballroom construction. Free speech experts stated the lawsuit raised no credible legal claims since …

Donald Trump YouTube Google Meta X corruption pay-to-play conflicts-of-interest shakedown tech-regulation
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Meta Launches Super PAC to Fight AI Regulation at State Level

| Importance: 8/10

On September 23, 2025, Meta launched a new super PAC designed to combat what it perceives as onerous AI and tech policy bills across state legislatures. This move comes as the federal government embraces AI development with minimal regulation, making state houses Meta’s primary regulatory …

Meta Mark Zuckerberg meta ai-regulation corporate-lobbying state-legislation tech-policy +2 more
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Meta Launches Second Super PAC in Month, Pledging Tens of Millions to Fight AI Regulation

| Importance: 8/10

Meta announced the launch of the American Technology Excellence Project, its second super PAC in a month, pledging tens of millions of dollars to elect ’tech-friendly politicians’ from both parties in the 2026 midterms. The PAC—run by Republican operative Brian Baker and Democratic …

Meta American Technology Excellence Project Brian Baker Hilltop Public Solutions regulatory-capture corruption tech-regulation campaign-finance super-pacs
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Trump's $200M White House Ballroom Funded by Government Contractors Seeking Access

| Importance: 9/10

Trump announced construction of a $200-250 million White House ballroom funded entirely by private donors including Lockheed Martin, Google, Palantir, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Blackstone. Nearly 40 corporations with billions in federal contracts pledged $5-10 million each, with donors’ …

Donald Trump Lockheed Martin Google Palantir Microsoft +3 more corruption pay-to-play conflicts-of-interest institutional-capture government-contracts
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FTC Launches Investigation into AI Companion Chatbots' Impact on Children

| Importance: 8/10

On September 11, 2025, the Federal Trade Commission issued Section 6(b) orders to seven major tech companies—Alphabet (Google), Character.AI, Meta (Instagram/Facebook), OpenAI, Snap, and Elon Musk’s xAI—demanding detailed information about AI-powered ‘companion’ chatbots designed …

Federal Trade Commission Alphabet Character.AI Meta OpenAI +3 more ftc ai-chatbots children-safety ai-regulation meta +4 more
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Silicon Valley Launches $200 Million Super PAC to Block AI Regulations Ahead of Midterms

| Importance: 8/10

Meta, Andreessen Horowitz, and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman pledged up to $200 million to create two new super PACs—Meta California and Leading the Future—aimed at electing candidates favorable to the tech industry and blocking strict AI regulations in the 2026 midterm elections. The massive …

Meta Andreessen Horowitz Greg Brockman OpenAI regulatory-capture corporate-influence campaign-finance tech-industry AI-policy
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Trump Purchases Over $100 Million in Bonds from Companies He Regulates

| Importance: 8/10

Ethics disclosures revealed Trump purchased at least $103 million in corporate and municipal bonds since January 20, making over 600 transactions including bonds from Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Meta, UnitedHealth, T-Mobile, and Home Depot—all companies subject to federal regulation and …

Donald Trump Wells Fargo Citigroup Morgan Stanley Meta +1 more conflicts-of-interest systematic-corruption
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Amazon and Meta are among the corporate sponsors of the White House Easter Egg Roll

| Importance: 8/10

For the first time in White House history, the Easter Egg Roll is sold to corporate sponsors, with tech giants Meta, Amazon, and YouTube purchasing sponsorships ranging from $75,000 to $200,000, raising significant ethical concerns about monetizing public events.

Donald Trump Melania Trump Amazon Meta YouTube +1 more kleptocracy trump-administration executive-power corporate-influence monetization
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Zuckerberg lobbies Trump to avoid Meta antitrust trial

| Importance: 7/10

Mark Zuckerberg lobbied President Trump to settle a 2020 FTC antitrust case that seeks to unwind Meta’s acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp for allegedly maintaining an illegal monopoly. The case was set for trial on April 14, 2025. According to WSJ, negotiations failed and the trial …

Mark Zuckerberg Meta Donald Trump Trump Administration Federal Trade Commission antitrust big-tech regulatory-capture conflict-of-interest
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Trump White House Sells Corporate Sponsorships for Easter Egg Roll, Marking New Level of Institutional Capture

| Importance: 8/10

The 2025 White House Easter Egg Roll marked an unprecedented moment of corporate capture, with tech giants Meta, YouTube, and Amazon purchasing sponsorship packages ranging from $75,000 to $200,000. These packages included branded activation spaces, event brunch tickets, and potential meet-and-greet …

Donald Trump Trump Administration Meta YouTube Amazon +2 more government-contracts corporate-access trump-administration institutional-capture corporate-sponsorship
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How the Trumps Turned Social Media Platform Litigation into a Profitable Strategy

| Importance: 8/10

In early 2025, Donald Trump successfully negotiated a series of lucrative settlements with major media and tech platforms, including a $24 million settlement with YouTube over account suspension, a $25 million settlement with Meta, a $10 million settlement with X (Twitter), a $15 million settlement …

Donald Trump Alphabet Inc. Google YouTube Elon Musk +3 more media-control regulatory-capture lawsuit-settlements social-media legal-strategy +1 more
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Meta Provides Llama AI Models to US Government and Military Contractors

| Importance: 8/10

Meta announced a groundbreaking policy shift, making its open-source Llama AI models available to US government agencies and defense contractors. Partnering with companies like Accenture, AWS, Anduril, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Oracle, Scale AI, and others, Meta opened its technology for national …

Meta Mark Zuckerberg US government agencies Lockheed Martin Palantir +8 more ai-governance military-contracts open-source regulatory-capture national-security +1 more
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Meta Fixes Bug in Political Content Filter on Instagram and Threads

| Importance: 5/10

Meta experienced a technical issue on Instagram and Threads that appeared to reset users’ political content filter settings, causing confusion. The company quickly acknowledged and fixed the bug, which occurred just before the first 2024 presidential debate.

Meta Instagram Threads bug platform-policy media-control
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WhatsApp Sues NSO Group Over Pegasus Spyware Attack on 1,400 Users

| Importance: 9/10

Meta-owned WhatsApp files a federal lawsuit against NSO Group in the US District Court for Northern California, alleging that NSO exploited a zero-day vulnerability (CVE-2019-3568, CVSS score 9.8) in WhatsApp’s voice calling feature to install Pegasus spyware on approximately 1,400 devices …

WhatsApp Meta NSO Group US District Court Northern California nso-group pegasus-spyware whatsapp facebook-meta zero-day-exploits +1 more
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