Why did Meta just hire Dana White?

It’s all change at Meta HQ. As Cockburn reported last week, former UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg — who has served as one of Mark Zuckerberg’s senior execs at the company since 2018 — is now on his way out. Taking, ironically, to rival platform Twitter, Clegg wrote that it was now “the right time” to move on from his role at the social media giant, adding his experience “truly has been an adventure of a lifetime.” How sweet.

Clegg’s replacement will be his current deputy, Joel Kaplan — who was also George W. Bush’s White House deputy chief of staff. But that’s not the only reshuffle Meta has made. Now it transpires that the chief exec of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Dana White, has joined the social media titan’s board of directors. In a gushing statement from Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder has said that White “will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables and the future of the human connection.”

But does Meta have other motivations for hiring White? Cockburn’s research shows that the UFC boss is a close friend of the president-elect, and even publicly endorsed Trump during his election campaign. It might help thaw relations between the to-be leader of the free world and the social media giant, which the Republican has formerly blasted for anti-conservative bias. At the very least, perhaps White will be able to convince Trump that Facebook is no longer an, er, “enemy of the people.” Not that closer ties would leave Twitter boss Elon Musk feeling best pleased…