Zuckerberg nixes ‘politically biased’ factchecking

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, announced on Tuesday that it will discontinue its controversial third-party fact-checking program in the US. In a video address, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted the services were “too politically biased” and “have destroyed more trust than they’ve created.”

“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,” Zuckerberg said.

The company plans to implement a “Community Notes” system, allowing users to flag potentially misleading posts for additional context, similar to the model used by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter). It will also get rid of rules that had restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity.

Zuckerberg also noted that the changes were influenced by the recent political climate, including the election of Donald Trump. In December, the two had dinner at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said, promising to reduce the amount of “censorship.”

The company acknowledged that its previous content moderation efforts had “gone too far,” leading to mistakes and user frustration. Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and Meta’s new Chief Global Affairs Officer, explained the decision was made due to concerns over biases among independent fact-checkers and the excessive amount of content being fact-checked.

“Experts, like everyone else, have their own biases and perspectives. This showed up in the choices some made about what to fact-check and how... A program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor,” he stated.

The Community Notes system is expected to be phased in across the United States over the next few months, with ongoing improvements planned throughout the year. Meta will also discontinue the practice of demoting fact-checked content, opting instead to use labels notifying users of additional information related to posts.

Facebook’s third-party fact-checking program, launched in 2016 in response to accusations over its role in spreading misinformation during the US presidential election, has faced persistent criticism for bias, lack of transparency, and concerns about the independence of fact-checking organizations. Conservatives have long claimed the program disproportionately targets right-leaning voices.

In 2023 Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee in which he admitted that he faced external pressure, including from the Biden administration, to regulate certain topics, such as COVID-19, and even items like satire and humor.

In 2022 Zuckerberg admitted his platform worked to limit the reach of an explosive story about incumbent President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, after the FBI told him to be “vigilant” about foreign misinformation.

Trump used Facebook and Instagram extensively during his first term in office until his accounts were suspended following the January 6 riot at the US Capitol in 2021, due to concerns that he would incite further violence by denying Biden’s election victory.

While Trump’s accounts were reinstated in 2023, in March of that year he referred to Meta as the “enemy of the people,” and later suggesting that the tech mogul should be jailed for alleged election interference.