Why is Mark Zuckerberg's Meta replacing stringent fact checks with ‘liberal’ community notes?
Critics termed Mark Zuckerberg's move part of Meta's latest series of efforts to mend ties with the upcoming administration under Donald Trump.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company will roll out a new feature called “community notes” in place of a stringent formal fact-checking program in the US.
The social media giant's founder further said the decision will allow more “free speech” on its platform. He added, “Fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US.”
The decision means Meta will stop proactively tackling posts that peddle hate speech, politically sensitive or pseudo-scientific claims. The company will use automated systems to review “high-severity violations” only in response to user reports.
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Why is Meta replacing fact-checks?
Conservatives, including US President-elect Donald Trump, have accused the platform of ‘censorship’ and ‘bias’ in favour of ‘liberal’ values. In recent times, Zuckerberg has regretted the company's certain content moderation actions on topics including Covid-19.
Mark Zuckerberg has been a target of Republicans since his $400 million donation to local election officials to manage the 2020 presidential election amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite a lack of evidence, conservatives believe that his donation played a crucial role to ‘rig’ the election against Trump. Republican-ruled states have banned such donations.
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Facebook posts alleging ‘rigging’ after the 2020 results, including Trump's repeated claims, are believed to have played a major role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Trump himself was suspended from Facebook and Instagram for two years following the attack.
Trump even threatened to arrest Zuckerberg for his company's policy stance on free speech. Trump said the latest decision by Meta was “probably” due to his threats.
Critics termed the move part of Meta's latest series of efforts to mend ties with the upcoming administration under Trump.
The company donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee fund, and Zuckerberg attended a dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
Zuckerberg also appointed Ultimate Fighting Championship chief executive Dana White, a key Trump ally, to Meta's board. Last week, Meta also promoted Republican policy executive Joel Kaplan as its global affairs head.
Immediate impact
The changes will affect Meta-owned platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the world's biggest social media platforms, with more than 3 billion users globally.
Critics slammed Zuckerberg's decision as a blow to tackle disinformation on sensitive issues in the US like immigration, gun violence, abortion rights, gender identity etc.
“We've learned the news as everyone has today. It's a hard hit for the fact-checking community and journalism. We're assessing the situation,” news agency AFP said in a statement.
Angie Drobnic Holan, the head of the International Fact-Checking Network, disapproved of Zuckerberg's characterisation of its members as “biased”.
“Fact-checking journalism has never censored or removed posts; it's added information and context to controversial claims, and it's debunked hoax content and conspiracies,” she said in a statement.
(With inputs from AP, Reuters)
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