Breaking down Meta’s fact-checking shift

This week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a far-reaching change headlined as "More Speech and Fewer Mistakes." It involves eliminating its third-party fact-checking program and implementing a “Community Notes” model, similar to X.

Behind the move: Zuckerberg said the company’s fact checkers have become too politically biased to maintain user trust, and have created a widespread culture of censorship across Meta’s platforms.

• The new Community Notes model will rely solely on contributing users to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, drawing from people across a diverse range of perspectives.
• The company also announced the removal of existing restrictions on politically charged subjects like immigration and gender, which Zuckerberg described as “out of touch with mainstream discourse.”
• Meta’s trust and content moderation teams are also moving from California to Texas, where Zuckerberg said, “there’s less concern about the bias of our teams.”

On the flip side: Many researchers and critics have expressed concern over the precedent Meta’s decision could set for the future of social media, one of the biggest sources of news and information on the planet.

• Some argue the Community Notes model isn’t effective on such a large scale, noting that such fact-checking on X often arrives hours or days after the post has already racked up millions of views.
• Others express concern about the potential spread of misinformation and hateful content on Meta’s platforms under its new content moderation policy, pointing to increases in such content on X following a similar moderation move.

Looking ahead…Meta’s new fact-checking guidelines are expected to roll out in the US across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads within the next few months.

📊 Flash poll: In general, do you agree with Meta’s new content moderation strategy?

• Yes
• No
• Unsure/other