It's unclear whether moving the team to Texas is merely symbolic. Common sense suggests that if a person in California expresses a certain political preference, moving them to Texas is unlikely to immediately reshape their views.

In the same town hall call, company leadership described the Texas relocation as an attempt to solve California's perception problem. Three employees told Wired that this reasoning frustrated employees, who believed Meta was hurting the workforce to appease Trump. Mehta and Trump are still suing in federal court in Northern California over the temporary suspension of his account following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump claims his constitutional right to speech was violated. According to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg recently met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to mediate the lawsuit.

This week, Meta unveiled plans to cut 5% of its workforce starting next month. The company said it plans to fill those positions throughout the year, a move that could potentially hire more workers in Texas. Meta will no longer set goals for recruiting historically underrepresented groups following its decision last week to shut down its diversity, equity and inclusion program.

Changes to hateful conduct rules last week allow users to post more vitriolic criticism, including about gender and race. Speaking on the Rogan Podcast, Zuckerberg said users will now be able to advocate on issues such as whether they should serve in military combat roles. Some employees are warning that Meta is now supporting the spread of misogyny and bigotry in its services, two employees said.

During a town hall call with employees, an executive defended the policy changes, saying they would open the door to a variety of viewpoints, such as being able to call men lazy on Facebook, according to an employee who attended. , without fear of being censored.

On the enforcement front, Meta is phasing out its current fact-checking program, limiting the use of automated filters to suppress allegedly offensive posts, and promoting more political content in News Feeds.

On Tuesday, 12 civil rights advocacy groups that said they had been advising Meta for years wrote to the company expressing "grave concerns" about the revised policy. “These changes are devastating to free speech because they will expose members of protected groups to increased attacks, harassment, and victimization, discourage them from using Meta’s services, impoverish dialogue, eliminate perspectives, and and silencing dissent and often censored voices,” wrote. The organization includes the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Human Rights Campaign and the National Black Justice Collective.

During the safety and integrity town hall, management would not commit to continuing to release statistics on the gender and racial makeup of the company’s workforce. “This is surrender in the worst possible way,” one person said.

Some managers have individually told their teams they plan to continue pushing for diversity hiring, according to three employees.

Additional reporting by Steven Levy.