It’s a big step backwards that Meta is taking: the group that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp has announced that it will end its fact-checking program in the United States. The initiative thus marks a major setback in the social network’s content moderation policy, according to specialists.
“We will get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community ratings, similar to those of X (formerly Twitter), starting with the United States,” said the group’s boss, Mark Zuckerberg, in a message on social networks.
According to Mr. Zuckerberg, “auditors have been too politically oriented and have done more to reduce trust than to improve it, particularly in the United States.”
Priority to freedom of expression?
Meta’s announcement comes as Republicans – as well as the owner of rival social network X, Elon Musk – have repeatedly complained about fact-checking programs, which they liken to censorship.
“The recent elections seem to be a cultural tipping point giving, once again, priority to freedom of expression,” said the boss of Meta.
At the same time, the group should review and “simplify” its rules concerning content on all of its platforms and “put an end to a certain number of limits concerning subjects, such as immigration and gender, which do not are more in the dominant discourses.
“An open door to a flood of dangerous content”
“This is a major setback in content moderation policy, at a time when disinformation and dangerous content are changing more quickly than ever,” the co-founder of the Resilience Center of the information (CIR), Russ Burley, in a press release.
“Efforts to protect freedom of expression are essential, but stepping back on fact-checking without a credible alternative opens the door to a flood of even more dangerous content,” he insisted.
-A political decision?
The announcement comes as Mr. Zuckerberg has increased his gestures towards President-elect Donald Trump, notably through a donation of one million dollars for the fund financing the inauguration ceremonies of the mandate, scheduled for January 20.
The Republican candidate had been particularly critical of Meta and his boss in recent years, accusing the company of bias and supporting progressive speeches (Trump was also suspended from Facebook after the attack of the Capitol, on January 6, 2021, but his account had been reactivated at the beginning of 2023).
A desire for appeasement
Mark Zuckerberg had dinner in November with Mr. Trump at the latter’s Mar-a-Lago (Florida) residence, in a gesture seen as a desire to calm relations with the future American president.
In another gesture aimed at the conservatives, Meta appointed a loyalist of Mr. Trump, Joel Kaplan, at the head of his public affairs, replacing the former British deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, who resigned.
Notre dossier « Fake off »
Finally, the group brought the head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Dana White, also close to Donald Trump, onto its board of directors. And he is expected to move his trust and safety teams from California, which is generally more progressive, to Texas, a more conservative state.
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