Meta drove by subtlety, zoomed past finesse, and took a sharp turn to the right. CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that the social media company is ending its fact-checking restrictions on Facebook and Instagram in an attempt to restore “free expression.”

The change is a vast departure from Meta’s previous content moderation policy, which, starting in 2016, employed third-party fact-checkers to take down harmful or inaccurate content. In a video posted to Meta’s website, Zuckerberg said that recent elections were a “cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.” Going forward:

• Meta will replace fact-checkers with a crowdsourced system, similar to Community Notes on X.
• It will remove some speech protections from discussion of LGBTQ people, which Zuckerberg called “out of touch with mainstream discourse.”
• The trust and safety teams responsible for US content moderation will move from California to Texas, “where there’s less concern about the bias of our teams.”

Meta will still scan for illegal activity and severe violations, like child exploitation, terrorism, drugs, fraud, and scams.

The Big Switch

Despite years of hostile back-and-forth between Zuckerberg and Trump (see: Trump getting kicked off and then reinstated on Meta platforms, Trump threatening Zuckerberg with life in prison), the CEO is now aligning himself more closely with the president-elect in a likely attempt to encourage policy positions that are more favorable to the social media giant.

• On Monday, Meta named UFC President Dana White, a prominent Trump supporter, to its board of directors.
• Last week, Joel Kaplan, a former George W. Bush aide and prominent Republican strategist, was tapped to replace Nick Clegg as head of Meta’s global policy team.
• Zuckerberg dined at Mar-A-Lago with Trump after the election and donated $1 million to his inaugural fund.

More politics: After it tweaked its algorithm to suppress political content, Meta said it will now re-tweak it to engage users in more elections, politics, and social issues—a change that could breathe new life into what many consider a declining platform filled with ads and AI slop.—CC

McDonald’s rolls back DEI practices, launches new menu. Mickey D’s is no longer lovin’ diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives after it announced it will end efforts to hit diversity goals in senior leadership. The fast-food giant joins a growing list of major US companies—including Walmart and Ford—to retire DEI policies amid an onslaught of conservative backlash as well as a recent Supreme Court ruling that banned affirmative action in college admissions. Anti-DEI provocateur Robby Starbuck celebrated the news, calling it “our first corporate flip of 2025.” In other McDonald’s news, the chain officially debuted its budget-conscious “McValue” menu category, which features a “Buy One, Add One for $1” option.

A devastating earthquake killed at least 126 in Tibet. A 7.1-magnitude quake struck the Tibet region in western China near the border of Nepal, rocking the holy city of Shigatse and destroying villages in the remote area. According to Chinese state media, 188 others were injured in addition to those killed, and 3,600 houses were damaged. The quake could be felt as far as Mount Everest base camp and Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital. The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, said he was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy.

Getty and Shutterstock are merging to fight AI. Getty Images, the editorial and stock photo company that supplies many of the images in this newsletter, is merging with rival Shutterstock in a $3.7 billion deal to improve their odds of surviving the AI takeover of visual media. Generative AI tools like Midjourney and OpenAI’s DALL-E can create images that (somewhat) convincingly replicate what you’d find in a library of real-life stock photos. Shares for both companies skyrocketed after the announcement.—AE

After decades of not learning the names of Dell laptops, you are finally free to continue not learning the names of Dell laptops. You probably already recognize the company’s new hardware categorization: Dell announced yesterday that its PCs will either fall into a simple “Dell” category or receive a “Dell Pro” or “Dell Pro Max” label.

“Oh, like Apple,” said everyone in response to the announcement. Dell execs denied following in the iPhone-maker’s footsteps, saying Apple doesn’t own those words. Chief Operating Officer Jeff Clarke said that Dell’s nomenclature—which included “XPS,” “Inspiron,” and “Latitude”—got confusing in the past. Those will be retired to make way for what Dell believes are more consumer-friendly titles.

• All three categories will also offer Base, Plus, and Premium versions.
• Alienware, the gaming computer brand Dell acquired in 2006, won’t adopt the new names.

Big picture: While Lenovo, HP, and Dell still beat Apple in unit sales, no one is buying laptops like they were in 2020. Computer categories saw huge jumps at the beginning of the pandemic but have slowly tapered off. Companies are banking that AI advancements will push users to upgrade their machines.—MM

Donald Trump Jr. packed loads of political baggage for his lightning visit to Greenland yesterday.

Don Jr. shivering at the icy airport came as his father, President-elect Donald Trump, vies to purchase the self-governing Arctic territory from Denmark. Even though the younger Trump insisted he was taking a tourist trip, Trump Sr. tied it to his own plans for the sprawling Arctic island, suggesting he wasn’t there simply as a northern lights enjoyer.

“Make Greenland Great Again”

Trump first floated the idea of buying Greenland in 2019 but got a firm “no, thank you” from Denmark’s and Greenland’s leaders. Now, he’s even more insistent that a deal is vital for US national security and beneficial to Greenland’s interests, going so far as to threaten Denmark with tariffs. He also refused to rule out using military force to get his way.

• The strategic value of its location near Arctic shipping routes and flight paths of planes (and missiles) is increasingly evident as Russia and China expand their Arctic presence.
• Critical minerals and fossil fuels buried under Greenland’s ice caps and its budding tourism industry are a big economic prize.

However, Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reiterated yesterday that the territory is “not for sale,” echoing the stance of Greenland’s PM Múte Egede.

But…the US already has a Space Force base on the island, and Denmark said it would be happy to expand collaboration in the region.—SK

The Biden administration announced another rule change on its way out the White House door: Unpaid medical bills will no longer appear on credit reports or impact loan decisions. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the rule will remove $49 billion in medical debt from the credit reports of 15 million Americans—boosting their credit scores by 20 points on average.

The CFPB and many experts have long argued that medical debt is a poor predictor of someone’s ability to pay back a loan. But that doesn’t stop it from dragging down Americans’ credit scores, preventing them from securing mortgages. The CFPB estimates that the rule change could allow 22,000 more mortgages to be approved every year. Now about those 7% rates...—AE