Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) is ending its fact-checking program in the U.S., a policy aimed at limiting misinformation on social media. Instead, it will rely on user comments (community notes) under posts that may be false or misleading, similar to X (formerly Twitter).
“We will remove the fact-checkers and replace them with community notes, like X, starting in the United States,” announced company founder Mark Zuckerberg yesterday, emphasizing that “it’s time to return to our roots of free expression.”
Media outlets and activists have criticized the move as a step back in content moderation, while allies of Trump have praised the change.
Fact-checking was introduced on Facebook in 2016 in response to criticism of misinformation during the 2016 U.S. election campaign.
This decision comes about two weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, as Meta and other tech giants look to engage with the incoming Trump administration, where Elon Musk is expected to play a key role.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that the decision would lead to more “bad things” on the platforms, describing it as a “trade-off” for reducing the number of “posts and accounts of innocent people that we mistakenly remove.”
He also mentioned appointing Dana White, head of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a close friend of Trump, to the company’s board of directors
