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Meta is dropping its fact-checking systems on Facebook and Instagram and adopting a "community notes" model, similar to Elon Musk's X.
On Tuesday (January 7), Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a video message on Facebook and Instagram, announcing that his social media platforms will drop their fact-checking systems because it led to “too many mistakes and too much censorship” and is “too politically biased.”
“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram,” Zuckerberg said.
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point toward once again prioritizing speech. So we’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” he continued.
Meta will first “get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X, starting in the U.S.”
“After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy,” Zuckerberg said in his video message. “We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the U.S.”
The company is also set to simplify its content policies on topics like immigration and gender and focus its filters on high-severity violations.
“What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far,” the CEO said.
“For a while, the community asked to see less politics because it was making people stressed, so we stopped recommending these posts,” he added. “But it feels like we’re in a new era now.”
Meta’s trust and safety and content moderation teams are also being moved from California to Texas, similar to Musk's move with X's headquarters.
“I think that it will help us build trust to do this work in places where there’s less concern about the bias of our teams,” Zuckerberg said.
“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” Zuckerberg concluded his message, adding it's been difficult to do so “the past four years” as “even the U.S. government has pushed for censorship.”
"We're watching the collapse of America in real time," one social media user reacted to Zuckerberg's announcement.
"How the hell is FACT CHECKING politically biased? That doesnt even make sense," another chimed in.
"So we'll get unchecked racism, sexism, homophobia, zenophobia and misinformation. Got it," a third person wrote.
See more reactions to Meta dropping fact-checking below.
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