Meta Stock Dips After Social-Media Giant Appoints Trump Ally Dana White As Director, Ends 3rd Party Fact-Checking, But Retail Turns Upbeat
Following Trump’s election, Zuckerberg met with him in late November at his Mar-a-Lago residence and he reportedly donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
FollowMeta Platforms, Inc. ($META) shares traded lower Tuesday amid a couple of announcements from the social media giant, but retail turned markedly bullish on the stock.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company announced Monday that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White, Italian businessman and chosen heir of the Agnelli family John Elkann, and technology investor Charlie Songhurst have been elected to the company's board of directors.
Zuckerberg said, “Dana, John and Charlie will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables and the future of human connection.”
White’s appointment raised a few eyebrows as he is known to be close to President-elect Donald Trump. Following Trump’s election, Zuckerberg met with him in late November at his Mar-a-Lago residence and he reportedly donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
This is an about-face from Meta’s stance in early 2021 when Trump was booted off the company's platforms following the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Last week, Meta replaced its Global Policy Head, Sir Nick Clegg, with Joel Kaplan, the most prominent Republican among the company’s management and a vocal backer of free speech.
In another noteworthy development, Meta said that starting on Tuesday, it will end third-party fact-checking and move to a community-notes model, similar to what the Elon Musk-owned X platform is doing.
The company said it will allow more free speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse and focusing enforcement on illegal and high-security violations.
‘’We will take a more personalized approach to political content so that people who want to see more of it in their feeds can,’’ Meta said. It added that it would start phasing this into its flagship Facebook App, Instagram and Threads.
META sentiment and message volume January 7, 2025, as of 12:11 pm ET | Source: Stocktwits
On Stocktwits, retail sentiment toward Meta stock turned to ‘extremely bullish’ (91/100) from ‘neutral’ a day ago. Chatter about the stock hit a feverish pitch, with message volume spiking to ‘extremely high.’
In a message on Meta stream on Stocktwits, a watcher said they trust in all that Zuckerberg does.
https://stocktwits.com/cleanair/message/599144179
Another pointed to a positive technical trend on the Meta chart.
https://stocktwits.com/LiveTradePro/message/599144300
Meta stock hit an all-time high of $638.40 on Dec. 11 before pulling back toward the end of the year and settling 66% higher at $585.51.The stock reclaimed the $600 level in the new year and touched $630.99 on Monday.
At last check, the stock was down 2.06% at $617.22 on below-average volume.
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