BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

Zuckerberg Personally Threatened U.K. Government With Investment Pull, Says Report

Minutes from a 2018 meeting between Zuckerberg and a British minister give an intriguing insight into how Zuckerberg does business in private.

Mark Zuckerberg personally threatened the British government with pulling Facebook’s investment from the country over its plans to bring in more restrictive social-media regulation, according to a report. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism obtained minutes of a 2018 meeting between Zuckerberg and the U.K. government minister who then handled digital, Matt Hancock. The notes give an intriguing insight into how Zuckerberg does business behind closed doors—they say he told Hancock that Britain was “the obvious territory in Europe of them to invest in, but they are now considering looking elsewhere.” He also described Britain as having an “anti-tech” government. Hancock then offered to change the government’s approach from “threatening regulation to encouraging collaborative working,” according to the government’s minutes.