Peter Thiel Slithers Away From Meta Board Of Directors To Boost Pro-Trump Candidates

Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel visits "FOX & Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on August 9, 2019 in New York City. (John Lamparski/Getty Images)
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Meta, Facebook’s recently rebranded parent company, announced on Monday that conservative megadonor Peter Thiel will be retiring from Meta’s board of directors.

Thiel, a longtime investor in Facebook and confidante of Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg going back to 2005, will not run for reelection at Meta’s annual stockholder meeting this year, according to the company.

“It has been a privilege to work with one of the great entrepreneurs of our time,” Thiel said of Zuckerberg in the announcement.

Zuckerberg praised Thiel as a “valuable member of our board” and “an original thinker who you can bring your hardest problems and get unique suggestions.”

The pro-Trump billionaire is leaving Meta to focus on the upcoming 2022 midterms, a source told the New York Times. He’s already thrown his support behind more than a dozen Republican Senate and House candidates, including three hopefuls aiming to unseat GOP House lawmakers who impeached then-President Donald Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

As the board’s most outspoken conservative, Thiel and his involvement in Facebook’s operations have been scrutinized by critics of the social media giant’s disastrous handling of hate speech and misinformation. Besides helping fuel right-wing claims of being unfairly victimized by Facebook’s content moderation practices, Thiel served as a conduit between Zuckerberg and Trump, who met with the two executives in 2019.

The New York Times noted that Thiel had declared last year that he would “take QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories any day over a Ministry of Truth.”

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Notable Replies

  1. Proof facebook censors conservatives?

  2. Exactly. And now how is little peter going to make a living?

  3. Given that Thiel is buddy buddy with Zuckerberg, that is further proof that FB is shilling for Trumpy and needs to be put out of business.

  4. The New York Times noted that Thiel had declared last year that he would “take QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories any day over a Ministry of Truth.”

    Notice, however, that for him this is an either/or dicotomy. I would prefer our media owners be committed to truth so we don’t have to worry about the evils of either organized misinformation or a government agency censoring thought.

  5. Avatar for 1gg 1gg says:

    When facebook changed its name to Meta, did anyone actually look up the meaning of the word,
    adjective

    1. Making or showing awareness of reference to oneself or to the activity that is taking place, especially in an ironic or comic way.
    2. Self-referential; at a higher level

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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