Meta follows in Elon Musk’s footsteps, moving employees to billionaire-friendly Texas

“Executives do everything they can to create an environment conducive to the actions they want to take, in the absence of review or accountability from actors like courts, lawmakers, or others,” she says.

Since his acquisition of Company X, formerly Twitter, Musk has become one of Trump’s most important allies. Support his campaign financially And lending the full weight of his own platform to promoting Trump’s talking points during the campaign. He has since sat in on meetings with foreign leaders with the president-elect and weighed in Employment choices For the new administration. Other tech leaders have taken notice, currying favor with Trump and… Donate to his inauguration fund. But even before the elections… Other tech companies have been following X’s lead in rolling back policies and protections that existed previously.

For his part, David Green, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says that Meta and other social platforms are likely to comply with state laws regardless of location. Moving employees to Texas does not mean that all supposed moderation problems will be fixed. He says bias can cut both ways.

“Misinformation is actually one of many, many issues that social media platforms have to deal with,” he says. “Having a moderation team in Texas may raise concerns about bias as well. For example, Texas has laws on the books that make it illegal to publish certain information about the availability of abortion services.

But Benavidez says Texas’ social media law may not be the state’s only attraction. “Once a company is headquartered or does significant business in a state, that allows it to use that state for jurisdiction in any future filings it has,” she says.

In 2023, X filed a lawsuit in Texas against the nonprofit Media Matters for AmericaAlleging that the group disparaged the company by pointing out that hate speech and misinformation on the platform were displayed next to ads. At the time, it was Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Also announced His office was opening an investigation into the organization. Federal judge in Texas He refused to drop the case in August 2024. X since then It changed its terms of service Any lawsuits against the company must be filed in Texas. That federalism should be brought in the Northern District of Texas, which is widely seen as friendly to Musk’s interests. (For example, the judge in the Media Matters case is said to have Buy and sell stocks At Musk’s Tesla earlier in the year, before the lawsuit was filed.)

dead Terms of Serviceunlike its Community Guidelines, so far remain unchanged, mandating that disputes be settled either in the Northern District of California, or at the state level, in San Mateo County. But this could change.

“The legislative environment, judicial environment, and governance environment in Texas is incredibly favorable to CEOs like Musk, and now Zuckerberg,” Benavidez says.

Gill posits that the regulatory environment in Texas may resemble what companies believe the national regulatory environment will look like under the new Trump administration.

“I think they are looking forward and seeing an environment that will be dominated by an administration with conservative and kind of extremist tendencies,” she says. “So they’re moving to places where that’s the norm so they can comply up front.”

Gil also points out that Meta is in trouble Antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade CommissionThis is something that a friendly administration may see fit to get rid of. “By proactively making these changes, which they hope will appease management, they may be hoping to get an amicable decision in return,” she says.

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.