Some on the Biden campaign thought they had two opponents to beat: first Donald Trump and then Facebook.
But people with close ties to Facebook and CEO Mark Zuckerberg have already become inside players in the Biden transition, suggesting that the president-elect is not slamming the door on the company.
Former Facebook board member Jeff Zients is co-chairing Biden’s transition team. Another former board member is an adviser. Two others — one who was a Facebook director and another who was a company lobbyist — have taken leadership roles. And Biden himself has a friendly relationship with a top Facebook executive, former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
That set-up is already creating an awkward contrast with the vocal Facebook-haters in the party. DNC’s chief mobilization officer Patrick Stevenson tweeted last week that “the two biggest institutional threats to our democracy are the Republican Party and Facebook.” Campaign spokesperson Bill Russo argued shortly after the race was called for Biden that Facebook is “shredding the fabric of our democracy.”
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