Facebook and Instagram are abandoning the use of independent fact checkers, replacing them with X-style “community notes” where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users.
In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on January 7, Mark Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were “too politically biased” and it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression”.
The move comes as Mark Zuckerberg and other tech executives seek to improve relations with President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office later this month.
Donald Trump and his Republican allies have criticized Meta for its fact-checking policy, calling it censorship of right-wing voices.
Speaking after the changes were announced, Donald Trump told a news conference he was impressed by Mark Zuckerberg’s decision and that Meta had “come a long way”.
Asked whether Zuckerberg was “directly responding” to threats Trump had made to him in the past, the incoming US president responded: “Probably”.
Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican who is replacing Nick Clegg as Meta’s global affairs chief, wrote that the company’s reliance on independent moderators was “well-intentioned” but had too often resulted in censoring.
Campaigners against hate speech online reacted with dismay to the change – and suggested it was really motivated by getting on the right side of Trump.
Meta’s current fact checking programme, introduced in 2016, refers posts that appear to be false or misleading to independent organisations to assess their credibility.
Posts flagged as inaccurate can have labels attached to them offering viewers more information, and be moved lower in users’ feeds.
That will now be replaced “in the US first” by community notes.
Meta says it has “no immediate plans” to get rid of its third-party fact checkers in the UK or the EU.
The new community notes system has been copied from X, which introduced it after being bought and renamed by Elon Musk.
It involves people of different viewpoints agreeing on notes which add context or clarifications to controversial posts.
After concerns were raised around self-harm and depressive content, Meta clarified that there would be “no change to how we treat content that encourages suicide, self-injury, and eating disorders”.
Fact-checking organisation Full Fact – which participates in Facebook’s program for verifying posts in Europe – said it “refutes allegations of bias” made against its profession.
The body’s chief executive, Chris Morris, described the change as a “disappointing and a backwards step that risks a chilling effect around the world.”
Alongside content moderators, fact checkers sometimes describe themselves as the internet’s emergency services.
However, Meta bosses have concluded they have been intervening too much.
