Meta, the owner of Facebook and other social media platforms, will implement major changes to its content moderation policies, founder Mark Zuckerberg announced this week in a video titled, “More speech and fewer mistakes”.Among the changes, Meta’s use of fact-checking organisations will end abolished and the group will switch to a system of community notes – similar to those used by the X platform – instead.
The move, revealed on Tuesday, comes as tech executives brace for the arrival of incoming US President Donald Trump, whose right-wing supporters have long decried online content moderation as a tool of censorship.
So why is this happening now and will it lead to more misinformation?
In a video posted to social media platforms, Zuckerberg explained that Meta plans to scrap fact-checking in favour of a new system of community notes which users can use to identify posts of others that may have misleading or falsified information. Meta plans to roll this community note system out in the next coming months. Advertisement
Zuckerberg said fact-checking organisations had proved to be “biased” when it came to selecting content to moderate and added that he wanted to ensure free speech on all platforms. “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression,” he wrote in the post with the five-minute video.
“Our system attached real consequences in the form of intrusive labels and reduced distribution. A programme intended to inform too often became a tool to censor.”
While this policy will extend to all subject matters, Zuc …