Behold Mark Zuckerberg: man of precept. Witness the Meta CEO’s dedication to probably the most high-minded of causes: “currying favor with whoever’s in cost.” In 2013, when Barack Obama was president, Zuckerberg co-founded FWD.us, a pro-immigration advocacy group. For years, he vocally supported offering paths to citizenship for “probably the most gifted and hardest-working individuals, regardless of the place they have been born.” Now, in 2025, with Donald Trump again in energy and pushing draconian immigration insurance policies, Zuckerberg’s philanthropy group has formally minimize ties with the group. Who says Large Tech executives do not stand for something?
On Friday, Bloomberg reported on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) severing its ties with FWD.us. Zuckerberg’s group supplied no funding to the advocacy group for the primary time this 12 months. As much as that time, over half of the roughly $400 million donated to the nonprofit since 2013 had come from CZI.
As well as, CZI’s chief of employees, Jordan Fox, resigned from the FWD.us board. Nobody else at CZI will fill the vacant slot, one other first for the pro-immigration and justice reform advocacy group.
In late 2024, Zuckerberg met with Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who reacts to brown-skinned people being despatched to international gulags the way in which my canine responds to a juicy steak. Amongst different subjects through the trade, Miller reportedly questioned Zuckerberg’s ties to FWD.us.
Mark Zuckerberg listens attentively to Stephen Miller at Trump’s January inauguration (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI through Getty Pictures)
Apparently, his phrases resonated with Zuckerberg’s ideas. In January, earlier than Trump was sworn in for his second time period, Meta unleashed an overhaul that reads like a Miller wishlist. The corporate ended its variety, fairness and inclusion (DEI) applications. That very same month, it ditched third-party fact-checkers, calling them “too politically biased.” It additionally modified its insurance policies to permit for “insulting language” on subjects of immigration and LGBTQ+ points. The corporate even added Trump backer Dana White to its board.
It matches a broader sample of Large Tech bending the knee to Trump.
“We’re in the midst of a reasonably quickly altering coverage and regulatory panorama that views any coverage that may benefit anyone group of individuals over one other as one thing that’s illegal,” Zuckerberg informed the New York Occasions in January. “Due to that, we and each different establishment on the market are going to wish to regulate.”
“We now have a US administration that’s happy with our main corporations, prioritizes American expertise profitable and that can defend our values and pursuits overseas,” Zuckerberg stated in a January investor name. “I’m optimistic in regards to the progress and innovation that this may unlock, so that is going to be a giant 12 months.”
What a massive 12 months certainly.
US Chief Border Patrol Agent, Gregory Bovino and masked ICE brokers in New Orleans (Ryan Murphy through Getty Pictures)
Now witness the contrasting phrases of considered one of Zuckerberg’s chief rivals in Silicon Valley. “Once you meet these [immigrant] youngsters who’re actually gifted, they usually’ve grown up in America, they usually actually do not know every other nation moreover that, however they do not have the alternatives that all of us take pleasure in, it is actually heartbreaking, proper?” the tech government stated. “That looks as if it is one of many greatest civil rights problems with our time.”
That “rival,” after all, was Obama-era Mark Zuckerberg in 2013.
Regardless of the funding setback, because of our principled hero, FWD.us will press ahead. “We’re grateful to our donors, previous and current, and so grateful to the various new donors who’ve stepped up previously few years — and significantly the inflow of recent supporters we’ve got seen this 12 months,” FWD.us President Todd Schulte stated in a press release. “This enables us to combat for immigrants beneath assault at this time and to construct a greater strategy to immigration and legal justice reform for a lot of, a few years to return.”
