The Selina Meyer Method

How Meta & Mark Zuckerberg are using the VEEP's playbook

Mark Zuckerberg is the Selina Meyer of Silicon Valley: always shifting, always strategizing, and always angling to stay on top. In recent months, we’ve seen a big shift from Zuck—jetting off to Mar-a-Lago, quotes about ‘masculinity in the workplace’, and of course, the full hype boy / rizzler / iced-out tech CEO makeover.

as Pierre Balmain intended

Veep's Selina Meyer was a master of winning over senators and congresspeople to serve her own ambitions. She didn’t care what she had to say or do—as long as it led to more power and admiration. One of the best examples (and one of my favourite, most quotable moments from Veep) is when POTUS changes his stance on abortion, forcing Selina to follow suit. To keep everyone happy, her team gathers around a whiteboard, mapping out every stakeholder on the issue, from Planned Parenthood to the Catholic Church, carefully calculating which position would cause the least damage to her presidential hopes.

starting my re-watch after this goes live

Zuck at Meta HQ is doing the same thing (minus the presidency).

And you know what? I don’t fault anyone for trying to shift their public perception for personal gain. It’s human. We want to be admired. We’re inherently selfish. We have shareholders to provide value to. It’s the whole reason PR as a function exists. So as we watch his press tour unravel, let's chat for a moment about where Meta has been and where it's going.

In a recent Joe Rogan episode, Zuck spoke about Meta’s “return to masculinity.” First of all, I found this to be an odd way for a grown person to speak. But that’s not really the point. This"masculinity" talk coincides with Meta’s broader narrative of "returning to its roots"—a way of saying, “Hey, we’ve been doing this all along, unlike these new guys (i.e X)”. It’s Zuck trying to position Meta as the grown-up in the room, the reliable veteran. Whether or not anyone’s buying it, the goal is clear: Meta wants to look like it’s been walking the walk all along, even when its track record says otherwise.

Back in 2016, the platform was accused of letting misinformation run rampant. The backlash forced a course correction: fact-checking, hiring thousands of moderators, and stressing the importance of truth on its platforms. And it cost them—Meta spent close to $13 billion on safety and security between 2016 and 2021.

Now, in 2024, Zuck’s “return” feels less like a homecoming and more like a full-fledged rebranding effort. The tech industry will be very cozy with this new administration and Zuck wants in on the fun. Can we blame him?

In just a few years, Meta and Zuck’s political positions have shifted dramatically, which is, frankly, a bit of a red flag. But will this flip-flopping impact their number of active users? Will public outrage lead to a mass exodus from the platforms? Honestly, I don’t think so. Most Meta users probably won’t care. At all. With 3.07 billion monthly active users on Facebook and another 2 billion on Instagram, these platforms are far too embedded in daily life and far too global to collapse under controversy. It’s the classic debate about whether consumer boycotts really hurt companies in the long run, which I’m not convinced they do (there is probably data to confirm or deny this. LMK if you find it).

So, we’re probably not done seeing Zuck appear on podcasts (Theo Von feels like the next logical stop, right?). Meta is charging full steam ahead with this PR strategy, and we’ll just have to see how it plays out. Their approach is simple: they don’t need everyone to like them—they just need to weather the controversy until it fades from the headlines.

So yes, IMO, if Selina Meyer were running Meta, she’d probably be pulling similar moves. But at least Gary would be there. Leviathan in hand.

Wait, does Zuck need a bag boy?

See y’all soon xx