Meta Platforms (META) stock is trading in negative territory Tuesday after the Facebook and Instagram parent announced that Dana White will join its board of directors and said that it is ending its fact-checking program.
"I've never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta's board," said Dana White, president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), in a statement. "I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level."
The announcement of Dana White's addition to Meta's board comes just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Monday, January 20. This move by Meta Platforms is seen as significant due to Dana White's longtime friendship with Trump, according to CNBC.
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In addition to Dana White, John Elkann, CEO of European investment firm Exor, and Charlie Songhurst, a technology investor and the former general manager and head of Global Corporate Strategy at Microsoft (MSFT), will also join Meta's board.
Meta will end fact-checking
Meta Platforms also said that it will be ending its fact-checking program in favor of a program similar to that of Community Notes on X.
"We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," said Meta Platforms' CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a video post. "More specifically, here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S."
The social media platform will also lift restrictions on specific content, such as immigration and gender, and will take "a more personalized approach" to political content to reduce censorship.
"Finally, we're going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more," Zuckerberg said.
Is META stock a buy, sell or hold?
Wall Street is bullish on Meta and for good reason. Indeed, the Magnificent 7 stock has climbed nearly 80% on a total return basis (price change plus dividends) over the past year.
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence, the average analyst target price for META stock is $658.65, representing implied upside of roughly 5% to current levels. Additionally, the consensus recommendation is Buy.
Financial services firm Jefferies is one of the more bullish outfits on the large-cap stock with a Buy rating and a $715 price target.
"We believe META has a unique opportunity to introduce generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools to the almost 4 billion users and over 200 million businesses across its family of apps,” wrote Jefferies analyst Brent Thill in a January 5 note.
The analyst adds that Meta Platforms is introducing GenAI advertiser tools, which are already increasing performance.
"Additionally, META, with its Llama models, has become a backbone of the open-source community, putting META in an excellent position to benefit from its rise," Thill said.
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