Meta and Political Speech

By Ken Shotts, Neil Malhotra, Sheila Melvin
2025 | Case No. ETH36 | Length 16 pgs.
This case examines Meta’s evolving role in political speech and content moderation, tracing its use as a campaign tool in the 2008 U.S. elections to a central actor in democratic processes worldwide. It explores how Meta’s platforms—Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and others—have been used to influence elections through targeted advertising, disinformation, etc, and how the company responded with new policies, an independent Oversight Board, and global election integrity operations. The case highlights controversies from the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections, the January 6 Capitol attack, the banning and reinstatement of Donald Trump, as well as Meta’s shifting stance in the 2024 election cycle amid concerns over AI-generated political content.

Learning Objective

The case can be used for multiple purposes.

In classes on business ethics, the case can be used to analyze the role of moral intuitions in determining how stakeholders respond to a company’s policies. It also can be used to highlight the fact that a company’s executives and employees often fail to anticipate these stakeholder reactions.

In classes on business and society, the case can be used to discuss companies’ roles and responsibilities in supporting (or at least not actively undermining) foundational societal institutions like democracy and the rule of law.

In classes on strategy beyond markets, the case can be used to analyze companies’ strategic reactions to hot button issues. These reactions can take a variety of forms, ranging from public relations and lobbying efforts to self-regulation and rethinking the company’s products and policies.

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