Topline
Meta will drop its fact-checking program and replace it with an X-style community notes feature, the social media giant’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday, saying the move will help restore “free expression” on the company’s platforms as he attacked governments and legacy media by accusing them of pushing for more censorship.
Key Facts
In a video posted on Facebook, Zuckerberg said the company is going to get back to its “roots” and focus on “simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
The Meta CEO then specified that the company would “get rid of fact-checkers” and replace them with “community notes similar to X,” starting first in the U.S.
Zuckerberg said the recent U.S. elections felt like “a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech.”
The billionaire added that the debate about “potential harms from online content” had led to Meta developing “complex systems” to moderate content, which led to “too many mistakes” and “too much censorship.”
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Zuckerberg claimed that the fact-checkers implemented by Meta “have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created.”
What Are The Changes Being Implemented By Meta?
The company’s new Chief Global Affairs Officer, Joel Kaplan, detailed the changes in a blog post, saying: “We’ve seen this approach work on X.” Once operational, Meta won’t write any of the community notes or decide “which ones show up.” The feature will “require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings,” the blog noted. Community Notes will be rolled out in phases over the next few months and will appear on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Meta will also be loosening its moderation policies and removing restrictions on topics like “immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate.” In his announcement, Zuckerberg claimed these restrictions are “out of touch with mainstream discourse,” and said they had been used as a tool to “shut down opinions,” instead of being more inclusive. The company is also rolling back its efforts to reduce the visibility of political content, saying it wants to replace its “blunt approach” with a “more personalized approach so that people who want to see more political content in their feeds can.” This means political content will be ranked and displayed “like any other content in your feed.”
Key Background
Meta’s changes come as Zuckerberg has made several public overtures to mend his and his company’s tense relationship with President-elect Donald Trump. Meta suspended Trump from all its platforms after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and, which Trump said at the time was “an insult” to Americans who voted for him, and added: “They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win.” While his accounts were eventually restored in 2023, Trump and his allies continued to attack Meta and Zuckerberg. Last year, Trump said Meta was a bigger threat than the Chinese social media platform TikTok and called it “an enemy of the people.” In late November, Zuckerberg met with Trump at his Mar-A-Lago residence in Florida, a move that was seen as a bid by the Meta CEO to mend the strained ties. At the time, Meta said Zuckerberg was “grateful for the invitation to join President Trump for dinner and…meet with members of his team about the incoming administration.” Trump’s pick for deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller told Fox News Zuckerberg informed Trump that “he wants to support the national renewal of America under Trump’s leadership,” and he sees the president-elect as an “agent of change and…prosperity.”
Big Number
$1 million. That is the amount Meta has donated to Trump’s inaugural fund.
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