What do social media regulations mean when Donald Trump is about to return to the White House for a second term, and what will it mean for the major social platforms under another Trump administration?

Social media has been a huge factor in Trump's ascent, with the president-elect even launching his own social media platform to interact with his followers. And now, with Elon Musk as his sidekick, it will also be part of a bigger agenda for his administration.

Here's what may await each of the major platforms based on Trump's statements while on the campaign trail.

Meta

Trump has a love-hate relationship with Zuck and Co., where the president-elect spent millions on Facebook ads in the past to promote his campaign while accusing the platform of censoring him and trying to limit his reach in recent efforts.

Indeed, on the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly warned Zuckerberg not to interfere with the 2024 campaign, and threatened to jail him for life if he did.

Meta, of course, has tried to discontinue political content for just these reasons, avoiding conflicts that bring more scrutiny to the app and shine a light on Meta's products as negative. As such, Meta has largely stayed out of this conflict, but it seems Trump still has some grudges that will be a negative for the company over the next four years.

But again, Trump also looks to promote American innovation, especially in AI. And his approach, at least at this stage, may very likely lead to relaxing AI regulations as an enabler of Meta expanding its AI efforts.

Trump has threatened to unwind President Biden's executive order on regulating AI, which he says "inhibits AI innovation." That must be a plus for Meta: his policy seems likely to be quite lenient with corporations looking for a way to widen their tentacles, at least for now, and quite far from an anti-trust perspective of the FTC under the Biden Administration.

And with Elon Musk set to lead a new government efficiency review, you can expect that will also lead to fewer roadblocks for tech companies. So while Trump may not like Zuckerberg personally, the broader changes under his government could actually benefit Zuck's coming projects.

Either way, Zuckerberg congratulated Trump on his victory late last week, as he looks to pave the way for the road ahead. 

X
In a social media sense, the biggest winner of a second term for Donald Trump is going to be the platform once known as Twitter, with X owner Elon Musk playing a leading role in helping to support the Trump campaign to find its voice and help amplify key messages, drive momentum through his own posts, interviews, and live appearances.

He was effusive in praise of Musk in his victory speech, calling him a "super genius" and a new star of the Republican party. And there does appear to be something of a honeymoon period between Musk and Trump, although both have also given indications that their fragile egos can be easily cracked, and it does seem like only a matter of time before their friendship turns sour at least to some extent.

But until that happens, Musk and X appear well on course to get more attention, and more support from Republican supporters. The election result could also see more advertisers re-assessing their view on X, given that so many votes went Trump's way. With so much support, maybe, X is not viewed by the general public as the hive of misinformation that independent assessments suggest.

Which could be a problem in and of itself, but perhaps, under a Trump administration, X will become a more viable and valuable ad platform, reversing its current revenue woes.

Though the real benefit for Elon is likely in political influence, and using X as a tool to sway public opinion. Trump's victory is essentially an endorsement of Musk's own capacity to win votes, and Elon will be keen to use this in other elections around the world and to potentially pitch such to political parties as a means to cut deals that benefit Musk's business interests.

Even if X does not generate more direct revenue because of Trump's win, it will most likely find another way to sustain itself, but Musk also might look for ways to back up the platform with his own money to continue using his political influence.

The prospects for X appeared dim before the vote, but now, Musk has far more avenues that may now open up for him. It may also look to merge with Trump's Truth Social to form a conservative mega app, though I am not so sure that will be on the cards just yet.

The only potential conflict here could be Musk's capacity to serve the government while still running his various companies. Maybe, he would need to recuse himself from various elements where his business interests conflict, or maybe, he's going to have to step down as CEO while he takes on a government role.

I don't think that will make a lot of difference either way, but that is another element to consider.

TikTok

After all, Trump had, not so long ago, proposed a ban on TikTok in 2020, as part of enhanced punishment for the spread of COVID 19. He has now become a precious advocate for the app and will do anything to save TikTok from being banned in the U.S., as part of the Senate-approved sell-off push.

Though easier said than done, as President Biden has already signed the TikTok sell-off into law, which will more than likely see it forced out of the U.S. sometime next year. Trump's avenues for reversing this are limited though he could issue an executive order that would make the ruling ineffective, even if it is still signed into law.

And technically, he could save the app-that is, save from being deleted, though the results that would backfire Congress might be a matter for a different discussion here. Right now, however, he pledged to save TikTok and make sure it's not pushed out of America.

That would be fabulous news for the application-at least, if the overt regulatory challenges continue, Trump may fail to repel at least some of the limitations that will eventually face TikTok.

We'll see how that plays out, but TikTok could also end up being a big winner at least in the initial stages of the second Trump term.

Snapchat

Other Apps
As for other apps, Trump has made some comments previously regarding Snapchat, calling CEO Evan Spiegel a "radical" and slamming the company's efforts to censor political content, though the Trump campaign did run Snap ads in its 2024 campaign.

As such, Snap seems not to be the particularly targeted area of the Trump team, though again the relief of broader tech regulations may offer some benefit for Snap's endeavors.

On the other hand, most of Snap's hardware production is China-based, and Trump's America-focused push can include tariffs which would affect Snap's capacity in this regard.  LinkedIn

There is nothing specific to mention in relation to LinkedIn in the campaign, but again, President Trump vowed to roll back the Biden administration's executive order on AI regulation that would also benefit LinkedIn's parent Microsoft Company, which has invested big into OpenAI.

Of course, LinkedIn is pushing AI into every part it can, so the better benefits of Trump's intended approach to AI development will impact the application. Not directly though as an extension of this aspect, although Trump has also been vocal criticizing the AI tools at Microsoft, and their perceived constraints on conservative and political speech.

Another indirect impact here may have been on the part of Microsoft's AI $3.3 billion data center project in Wisconsin, where Biden used it to criticize Trump on that one. Trump had earmarked the same place to serve as a U.S. base for Taiwanese tech company Foxconn. But that deal eventually fell through, and Biden then used it as an example showing how he gets things done, where Trump had failed.

Now, I don't think that Trump can alter the direction of the project at his will, but he might carry a grudge against Microsoft for their part in making it a slight.

These are going to be some of the immediate effects for the companies running the social media platforms following on Trump's statements during his presidential campaign trail, although these can change at any moment. This is because Trump is notorious for being erratic, and he failed to fulfill more than half of the pledged actions the last time that he was in power.

Perhaps none of these things will ever come to be, but at least now is where the next President stands on social media issues.