Meta Shifts Gears: Empowering Users Over Controversial Fact-Checkers!

Meta is discontinuing the employment of autonomous fact checkers on Facebook and Instagram, substituting them with X-like “community notes” where the assessment of post accuracy is delegated to users.

In a video released alongside a blog entry published by the company on Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that third-party moderators were “excessively politically biased” and it was “time to return to our roots concerning free expression”.

This shift coincides with Zuckerberg and other tech leaders aiming to mend ties with US President-elect Donald Trump before he assumes office later this month.

Trump and his Republican counterparts have condemned Meta for its fact-checking strategy, labeling it censorship of conservative voices.

Following the announcement of these changes, Trump remarked during a press conference that he was impressed with Zuckerberg’s decision and that Meta had “progressed significantly”.

When asked if Zuckerberg was “directly reacting” to previous threats made by Trump, the newly elected president stated: “Probably”.

Joel Kaplan, a notable Republican who is succeeding Sir Nick Clegg as Meta’s global affairs chief, commented that the company’s dependency on external moderators was “well-intentioned” but too often led to censorship.

Activists opposing online hate speech reacted with concern to the alteration – suggesting it was primarily motivated by a desire to align with Trump.

“Zuckerberg’s declaration is a clear attempt to ingratiate himself with the incoming Trump administration – with detrimental consequences,” said Ava Lee from Global Witness, an advocacy organization that claims to hold major tech accountable.

“Claiming to circumvent “censorship” is a political gesture to evade accountability for the hate and misinformation that these platforms foster and facilitate,” she further stated.

Meta’s existing fact-checking initiative, launched in 2016, forwards posts that seem false or misleading to independent entities for verification.

Posts identified as incorrect can have labels attached that provide viewers with additional context, and may be demoted in users’ feeds.

This will now be superseded “in the US first” by community notes.

Meta asserts it has “no immediate plans” to eliminate third-party fact checkers in the UK or EU.

The new community notes framework has been derived from X, which introduced it following its acquisition and renaming by Elon Musk.

This system entails individuals with varying viewpoints collaborating on notes to provide context or clarifications to contentious posts.

“This is impressive,” he remarked regarding Meta’s implementation of a parallel system.

Nevertheless, the UK’s Molly Rose Foundation termed the announcement a “serious concern for online safety.”

“We are swiftly clarifying the extent of these policies, including whether they will extend to suicide, self-harm, and depressive content,” said its chairman Ian Russell.

“These alterations could have grave implications for numerous children and young adults.”

Meta informed the BBC that it would regard content violating its rules on suicide and self-harm as a “high severity” infraction, thus subjecting it to automated moderation systems.

The fact-checking organization Full Fact, which participates in Facebook’s verification program in Europe, asserted it “rejects claims of bias” against its profession.

The organization’s CEO, Chris Morris, characterized the modification as a “disheartening and backward step that threatens a chilling impact globally.”

In conjunction with content moderators, fact checkers often refer to themselves as the internet’s emergency services.

However, Meta executives have concluded they have been intervening excessively.

“Too much benign content is getting censored, far too many individuals find themselves incorrectly confined in “Facebook jail,” and we are often too sluggish to react when they do,” noted Joel Kaplan on Tuesday.

However, Meta appears to recognize that some risk is involved – Zuckerberg stated in his video that these modifications would entail “a trade off”.

“It signifies we’re going to overlook some harmful content, but it will also decrease the instances of innocent users’ posts and accounts being mistakenly removed,” he stated.

This strategy also conflicts with recent regulations in both the UK and Europe, where large tech companies are being compelled to assume greater responsibility for the content they host or face significant penalties.

Therefore…it’s perhaps not unexpected that Meta’s shift away from this form of oversight is limited to the US, at least for now.

Meta’s blog entry indicated that it would also “reverse the mission expansion” of regulations and protocols.

“It’s not fair that remarks can be made on television or in Congress, yet not on our platforms,” it noted.

This development arises as tech companies and their leaders prepare for Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Numerous CEOs have openly praised Trump on his return to power, while others have visited Trump’s Florida residence Mar-Lago to confer with the incoming president, including Zuckerberg in November. Meta has also contributed $1 million to an inauguration fund for Trump.

“The recent elections seem to represent a cultural shift towards, once more, emphasizing free expression,” remarked Zuckerberg in Tuesday’s video.

Meta informed Trump’s team of the policy update prior to the public announcement, the New York Times reported.

Kaplan taking over from Sir Nick – a former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister – as the president of global affairs for the company has also been interpreted as an indication of the firm’s evolving strategy regarding moderation and its shifting political focus.

The corporation additionally announced on Monday that Dana White, a close Trump supporter and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, would join its board of directors.

Kate Klonick, an associate professor of law at St John’s University Law School, stated that these alterations illustrated a trend “that has appeared unavoidable over the past few years, particularly since Musk’s acquisition of X.”

“The private governance of expression on these platforms has become a growing political issue,” she informed BBC News.

While companies have previously encountered pressure to establish trust and safety frameworks to manage concerns such as harassment, hate speech, and misinformation, a “drastic shift back in the opposite direction” is now taking place, she added.