Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, announced their platforms will end its use of fact-checkers in an effort to curb online censorship.
Meta will end the use of fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram, according to Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Meta has been utilizing third-party fact-checkers since prior to the election of President Trump in 2016. It was reported that posts deemed to contain inaccurate information by the fact-checkers were demoted in Meta’s algorithms, making the posts appear less.
Meta said they will replace their fact-checking system with a community notes system based on the current platform used by rival social media platform X. The community notes system relies on other users to call out false information or provide context to a post, but there will be an exception for posts containing blatantly untrue or misleading statements.
Zuckerberg and Musk have recently agreed with each other despite the two billionaire tech founders having a longstanding feud. Musk at one point challenged Zuckerberg, a martial arts enthusiast, to a cage match. The Meta founder initially agreed but then called off the proposed bout. Musk was quick to throw his support behind Zuckerberg after the latter’s decision this week, simply saying “This is cool” on Twitter with a link to Zuckerberg’s decision. The Meta CEO specifically referenced his desire to “restore” freedom of speech and expression to Meta’s platforms, in comments that sounded similar to Musk’s when he first began publicly expressing interest in a takeover of Jack Dorsey’s Twitter in 2022.
Others were not pleased by the move to end fact-checkers, including President Joe Biden. The 82-year-old Democrat called Zuckerberg’s decision “shameful” and accused him of denying the importance of the truth. “Telling the truth matters,” Biden said during his press conference, which may be his final as president. “The whole idea of walking away from fact checking, as well as not reporting anything having to do with discrimination… I find to be just contrary to American justice, the way we talk about one another,” Biden said. The president was similarly critical of Elon Musk’s decision to purchase Twitter.
Zuckerberg, who announced his decision during an appearance on Fox News, also joined Joe Rogan on his podcast, where he discussed the past alleged relationship between the Biden administration and Facebook over potential misinformation regarding COVID-19 during the pandemic. Zuckerberg accused Biden’s officials of “screaming” and “cursing” at his company over disagreements regarding the removal of flagged posts. Zuckerberg, a previous critic of Donald Trump, followed up by saying he was “optimistic” about the President-elect prior to his second inauguration.
