Zients, who most recently served as Biden’s coronavirus response czar, joined Facebook’s board two months after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. He then declined to seek re-election in 2020 before joining the government.
With Zients now set to occupy one of the most powerful roles in Washington, critics on the left are again concerned that he is too lenient with corporate interests, citing his time at Facebook as an example.
Jeff Hauser, whose progressive advocacy group the Revolving Door Project tracks federal picks, said “with [former adviser] With Tim Wu leaving the White House and the Zients joining, “Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg” can take a lot of solace in Biden’s personnel changes. “
Wu, a prominent critic of the tech giants who helped lead Biden’s antitrust agenda, left the White House earlier this month. He is widely seen as one of the top allies of advocates within the Biden administration pushing to rein in Silicon Valley giants.
