On Tuesday, social media entrepreneur Mark Zuckerberg announced in a video that he was ending Meta's controversial “fact-checking” program and embracing the quintessential American ideal of free speech on the platform. . Instead of a politically biased fact-checking system, Meta will move to a “community notes” system inspired by Elon Musk's X.
Zuckerberg also said in the five-minute video that Meta is moving its trust, safety and content management teams from California and to Texas. The move appears to be an attempt to address complaints that Facebook and its satellite companies Instagram and Threads have become too censorious over the past decade due to government intervention.
“Back to our roots”
“The time has come to go back to the basics of freedom of expression on Facebook and Instagram,” Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg hinted that President Trump's election in November may have been the reason for his change of heart.
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point that re-prioritizes speech. So we need to go back to our roots, make fewer mistakes, simplify our policies, and restore freedom of expression to our platform.” “We're going to focus on doing that,” Zuckerberg said.
“More specifically, here's what we're going to do: First, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US,” he added.
Previously, Mehta had worked with “independent fact-checkers” who were actually politically and culturally biased actors with distinctly left-leaning leanings.
“When we launched the Independent Fact-Checking Program in 2016, we were clear that we did not want to be the arbiters of truth. , made the best and most rational choice at the time,” Mehta's statement said.
Readers note that this approach censors John Stossel for a video that questions how much climate change is contributing to wildfires, and another that simply asks, “Are we doomed?” You may remember it being used for Regarding global warming.
“We are ending our current third-party fact-checking program in the U.S. and beginning a transition to a community notes program in its place,” Meta's statement said. “We've seen this approach work in X, where the community is empowered to decide when a post is misleading and requires more context. People with different perspectives decide what context is useful to others.”
Mr. Zuckerberg also declared that in the future, hosts would be less likely to suppress their opinions on topics such as immigration and gender identity.
“We're going to simplify our content policies and remove a lot of restrictions on topics that have nothing to do with mainstream discourse, like immigration and gender,” Zuckerberg said. “What started as a movement to become more inclusive has gone too far, increasingly being used to shut down voices and shut out people with different views.”
leave california
As mentioned above, Meta is also ditching California and heading to Texas, at least for its trust and safety and content management teams.
“We are relocating our Trust & Safety and Content Moderation teams from California, and our U.S.-based Content Review will be based in Texas,” Zuckerberg announced in a statement. “As we work to promote freedom of expression, I think it helps build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about bias on the team.”
MAGA transformation?
CNN called Zuckerberg's announcement a “MAGA makeover”
“These tech CEOs often seem to actually like or prefer certain types of speech,” said CNN media analyst Brian Stelter. “The changes that Meta announced today are very much a MAGA makeover and a pro-Trump makeover.”
Really? Is CNN worried about Facebook becoming more pro-Trump? Despite nearly a decade of attacking Trump and his followers, declaring them to be the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, left-wing media outlets are calling for Facebook to step back on the kind of censorship people have complained about. I can't believe that he is teaching this.
Is Zuckerberg's transformation into a free speech fighter real, or is he simply making a business decision sensing a shift in the political winds?
Either way, it's good news for those who truly value free speech. At least for now.
