Meta will start to replace its fact-checkers in the United States with a new system of “community notes” similar to Elon Musk’s X platformannounced the CEO of the company.
“The recent elections feel like a cultural tipping point toward a new emphasis on free speech”says Mark Zuckerberg in a video message posted on Facebook, which belongs to Meta.
Nearly 21 false claims per day during Donald Trump’s first term
This decision comes less than two weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
According to the fact checker Politifact, 76% of the US president-elect’s claims were false during his first term, from 2017 to 2021. The Washington Post estimates the number of false declarations made by the American billionaire at 30,573 during the same period, an average of 21 per day.
Last year, Donald Trump called Facebook a“enemy of the people” and launched his own social network, Truth Social, in 2022, after being banned from other platforms.
Mark Zuckerberg spoke directly about the US election result, saying Meta would work with Donald Trump to make “roll back countries that attempt to control social media platforms”targeting in particular the European Union.
The European law on digital services (DSA) requires large technology companies such as Facebook and Instagram to counter illegal content online and mitigate misinformation and election manipulation.
Changes to Meta’s fact-checking system
Changes to Meta’s fact-checking system are currently limited to the United States.
Mark Zuckerberg states in his video message that Meta will get rid of fact checkers, replacing them with “community notes” similar to. In these notes, users add context to misleading messages, and contributors evaluate whether the note is useful or not.
Meta CEO called fact checkers “too politically biased”asserting that they “destroyed more trust than they created”.
Yet, X’s community ratings system has been criticized for its inability to counter misinformation.
Last year, a report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) found that nearly three-quarters of accurate community ratings on X were not displayed to all users. Some misleading posts also had far more views than the community notes that accompanied them, according to the report.
Removal of many restrictions
The parent company of Facebook and Instagram will also simplify content policies and “get rid of a bunch of restrictions” on issues such as immigration and genderaffirms Mark Zuckerberg.
He added that Meta would reduce content filters that look for violations of its terms of service to focus only on what it characterizes as “illegal and very serious violations”.
This is not the first change Meta has made since the election of Donald Trump. At the start of the week, the company replaced its head of international affairs, Nick Clegg, with a former aide to George W. Bush, Joel Kaplan.
In an interview with the conservative American channel Fox News, the latter declared that if it can be said on television or in front of Congress, “we should definitely be able to say it on Facebook and Instagram”.
