X boss Linda Yaccarino says Meta's decision to scrap fact checkers is 'exciting'
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The boss of X has hailed Meta's decision to ditch fact checkers and reduce content moderation in favour of X-style Community Notes as "really exciting". Linda Yaccarino welcomed Mark Zuckerberg "to the party" during her appearance at the CES technology show in Las Vegas on Tuesday. Her remarks came just hours after Meta announced it would stop using third-party fact checkers to flag misleading content, opting instead for user-based notes.
The company claimed the previous system amounted to censorship and was riddled with bias. In a brief video from Mr Zuckerberg and a supporting blog post, the social media giant said it would also scale back its automated content moderation systems to allow for more free speech on its sites.
This is despite Mr Zuckerberg admitting that this would mean the company would "catch less bad stuff". The decision has been widely criticised by commentators and online safety campaigners, who warned it would allow misinformation to spread more easily on Meta platforms and leave users more vulnerable to harmful content.
However, during an on-stage Q&A at CES, Ms Yaccarino said: "I think it’s really exciting that when you think about Community Notes being good for the world. "Think about it as this global collective consciousness, keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time. And it couldn’t be more validating than to see that Mark and Meta realised that.
"When you think about Community Notes, Mark and Meta realised that it’s the most effective, fastest fact-checking, without bias... also it inspires great behaviour. Human behaviour is inspired because when a post is noted, it’s dramatically shared less, so that’s the power of Community Notes.".
