The social media company Meta platform on Tuesday canceled U.S. fact-checking programs and reduced restrictions on discussions on controversial topics such as immigration and gender identity as President-elect Donald Trump prepares for a second term, Criticism of the Conservative Party succumbs to criticism of the Conservative Party.
The move is the biggest overhaul of Meta’s approach to managing political content in recent memory, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been expressing his desire to mend the fence with the incoming government.
These changes will affect Facebook, Instagram and Threads, the world’s three largest social media platforms with more than 3 billion users worldwide.
Last week, Meta put Republican policy director Joel Kaplan as head of global affairs and announced on Monday that it had elected the CEO of the Final Battle Championship, Trump’s close friend Dana White serves on the board.
“We’ve reached a wrong mistake and too much censorship. It’s time to go back to the roots of our surrounding free expression,” Zuckerberg said in the video.
He acknowledged the role of recent U.S. elections in his mind, saying they “feel like a cultural turning point, and prioritizing speeches again.”
When asked about changes at the press conference, Trump welcomed them. “They went a long way – Yuan. That man (Zuckerberg) was very impressive,” he said.
When asked if he thinks Zuckerberg responded to his threats, including a promise to imprison the CEO, Trump said.
Instead of a formal fact-checking plan for suspicious claims posted on the metaplatform, Zuckerberg plans to implement a “community notes” system similar to the social media platform X owned by Elon Musk.
Zuckerberg said Mehta will also stop proactively scanning for hate speech and other types of violations, and only review such posts on user reports. It will focus the automation system on eliminating “highly irregularities” such as terrorism, child exploitation, scams and drugs.
He added that the company will relocate its team to oversee the writing and review of content policies in California and other locations in the United States.
Sources familiar with the discussion told Reuters that Meta has been working on a shift from fact-checking.
However, it does not share relocation plans with employees, but confusing the app’s blind posts, which provides employees with space to share information anonymously.
Another source told Reuters that most of META’s U.S. content moderation has been carried out outside California.
Kaplan appeared on the Fox and Friends program on Tuesday morning to address these changes, and he provided only a summary of his public statement in an article on the workplace of the company’s internal forum, which Reuters saw of.
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment on the plans changed, or which specific teams will leave California. The spokesperson also declined to cite examples of fact-checkers’ mistakes or biases.
Captured in surprise
The demise of the fact-checking program began in 2016, surpriseing partner organizations.
“We have learned this news, just like everyone today. It’s a tough blow to fact-checking community and journalism. We are evaluating,” AFP said in a statement to Reuters. Condition.”
Angie Drobnic Holan, head of the International Fact-Checking Network, cited Zuckerberg as biased or censored the characteristics of his members.
“Fact-check news never censored or deleted posts; it was the addition of information and context to the controversial claim and the scam content and conspiracy were debunked,” she said in a statement.
“The truth and facts serve everyone (not the right or the left) and that’s what we will continue to offer,” said Kristin Roberts, chief content officer at Gannett Media.
Other partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment, while Reuters declined to comment. Meta’s independent oversight committee welcomed this.
Zuckerberg regrets some of the content review actions on topics including Covid-19 in recent months. Mehta also donated $1 million (about Rs 850 million) to Trump’s inauguration fund, which runs contrary to past practices.
“With false information and harmful content development faster than ever before,” said Ross Burley, co-founder of the Center for Nonprofit Information Resilience.
“This move seems to be more about political apps than smart policies.”
A spokesman said that at present, Yuan is planning to target changes only in the U.S. market and has no immediate plans to terminate its fact-check program in places like the European Union, which has taken a more aggressive approach to regulating tech companies.
Musk’s X has investigated issues including the “community notes” system in the European Commission.
X months after the feature was launched, the commission began its investigation in December 2023. A committee spokesman said it had taken note of Meta’s announcement and was continuing to monitor the company’s compliance in the EU.
The EU’s Digital Services Act came into effect in 2023 and requires very large online platforms such as X and Facebook to deal with risks of illegal content and public safeguards.
Any company found in the vulnerability faces fines, comparable to up to 6% of its global revenue.
Meta said it will start estimating in community notes in the U.S. in the next few months and improve the model over the year.
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