Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, has announced that it is ending independent third-party fact-checking on its platforms. It will now leave such verification to the users. “We will get rid of fact checkers who have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created, especially in the US,” reported founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post on social networks.
The company also said it “went too far” with its content management program, making “too many mistakes” and censoring too much content. In addition, the company said it plans to remove restrictions on certain topics that are part of normal dialogue and focus more on “very serious violations” of the rules, such as terrorism, child sexual abuse or drugs.
The change raised the pressure on Slovak journalist Zuzana Kovačič Hanzelová, who immediately reacted on the social network. “If there is a hell, this one has a direct express ticket there,” she wrote to Zuckerberg. “And about his 1 percent of mistakes that cause ‘censorship’, I would like to say that we have been trying to convince Meta for several weeks that the ad where they misused my identity using AI for some investment scams should go down . Unsuccessfully,” she confided to her followers about her futile struggle.
The consequence of Trump’s victory?!
Meta will switch to a system similar to that used by the X Network (formerly Twitter), launching only in the US at first. “We see this approach working at Company X – where they empower their community (users) to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need wider context,” said Joel Kaplan, Meta’s head of global affairs.
Zuckerberg admitted that the announced changes are also a consequence of Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections, approximates AP. According to him, the elections represented a kind of cultural turning point leading to a renewed prioritization of freedom of speech.
