Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will get rid of fact-checking, end restrictions on discussions around immigration and gender, and allow more political posts in a series of sweeping changes.
Instead of paying organisations to fact check posts, the social media giant will start to use a “Community Notes” system similar to that on Elon Musk-owned X.
In an Instagram video, the tech CEO claimed the changes would boost “free speech”, adding it would “make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms”.
The new policies, announced days before president-elect Trump’s inauguration, will initially roll out in the US where, historically, Meta tends to push large changes to its platforms before rolling out to other territories.
What does this mean?
The move signals a shift away from Meta using independent fact-checking organisations and towards giving users the power to flag posts that are potentially misleading, as seen on Musk’s X platform.
In his reel, Zuckerberg said: “After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote non-stop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy.
“We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth, but the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the US.”
Zuckerberg said that Meta would take four steps to change the way it polices misinformation.
The move will use a system similar to one used on Elon Musk’s X (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration)
Firstly, in the next “couple of months” fact-checkers will be phased out in favour of a “community notes” system, where users can add context to posts they feel are misleading.
Secondly, the organisation is going to get rid of restrictions on topics such as immigration and gender.
Zuckerberg said of this change: “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far. So I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms.”
Thirdly, the company is changing how it enforces its policies so as not to penalise people for making mistakes.
Finally, the company aims to bring back “civic and political content”, something that was withdrawn in 2021 amid misinformation fears.
Zuckerberg said that content around civic and political groups was something that users had given feedback on wanting to see again: “We’ll phase it back into Facebook, Instagram and Threads while working to keep the communities friendly and positive.
What does this mean for my Facebook and Instagram feed?
Mark Zuckerberg is to end fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram (AP)
It’s difficult to say, but it seems likely that you will soon see more Facebook and Instagram posts on topics and and issues that may be divisive.
Zuckerberg said that Meta products now have “too much censorship” and that he wanted to rebalance “freedom of expression” – this would likely include the freedom to offend others on the platform
Zuckerberg indicated the company would continue to crack down on issues around “drugs, terrorism and child exploitation”. However, he said that Meta’s filters had been incorrectly taking down content for less serious violations.
In practice, that probably means more political, controversy statements around issues – as flagged by Zuckerberg – such as immigration and transgender popping up on your feed.
What happens if these posts cross the line? It seems likely that your feed will contain a community note that will become visible as a ‘correction’ on a post once it has been approved by other users.
Unlike comments, Notes are always visible on a post, but they remain invisible until enough users have rated the note as helpful.
Citing how X approaches this issue, Zuckerberg said it results in users feeling “empowered” to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context.
Will you still be able to complain about a post?
At present, Meta’s fact-checking program relies on a mix of users reporting posts and Meta identifying posts that may contain misinformation.
The Community Notes program is likely (if it keeps the same model as X) to rely on volunteer contributors to identify and attach notes to offending posts.
Facebook currently – and will presumably – still allow users to report posts that breach the service’s terms of service around issues such as hate speech.
Meta’s rules currently state: “We take things down from Facebook if they go against our Community Standards. If we don’t take down something that you reported, you can still use your settings and preferences tools to control your experience on Facebook. These tools will help you to see less content like this in the future.”