Meta to get rid of factcheckers and work with Donald Trump to champion 'free speech'
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Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has revealed plans to cut back on fact checkers across the brand’s social media platforms amid a shifting political landscape. In a video posted on Facebook, Mr Zuckerberg promised to champion free speech on social media as Donald Trump returns to the White House while replacing existing systems with something similar to community notes on Twitter/X.
In the five-minute clip, Mr Zuckerberg criticised existing fact-checking systems and took aim at other governments around the world, namely in Europe, that he claims are trying to ‘censor’ people. “It's time to get back to our roots around free expression,” the post said.
“We're replacing fact checkers with Community Notes, simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes. Looking forward to this next chapter.”. In the clip, Mr Zuckerberg explained that “factcheckers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created.”.
In response, he plans to introduce a community notes-style fact-checking system in which community members can add further context to posts. He will also move his trust and safety and content moderation team from California to Texas, where he claims there will be less bias.
The 40-year-old social media boss then promised to “get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse.”. The proposed changes are expected to be applied to both Facebook and Instagram, as well as Threads.
