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The end of Meta’s fact-checking service – the company that controls Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp – occurred only in the United States (USA), at least for now, informed the technology giant when responding to questions from the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) .
“At this time, this change will only be applied in the United States. We plan to create, test and improve Community Notes in the United States before any expansion to other countries”, informed the American big tech, highlighting the intention to expand the change to other countries.
Meta/Photo: Disclosure
Since 2016, Meta has offered a fact-checking service on Facebook and Instagram, carried out by journalists and experts in around 115 countries, which determines whether information circulating on the networks was true or false and offers contextualization to users.
With the end of fact-checking, Meta began adopting the “community notes” policy. As a result, only previously registered users can contest any information circulating on the platforms.
Prejudiced offenses
At the same time as it claims to protect human rights and the safety of vulnerable groups in the document sent to the AGU, Meta defended changes to the policy on hate speech that now allows prejudiced insults against women, immigrants and homosexuals. The company confirmed that these changes are already in effect in Brazil.
“Such updates seek to simplify the content of the policy in order to allow for broader debate and conversations on topics that are part of current discussions in society,” explained the company, claiming that the policy previously in force had limited “legitimate political debate and, often, impeding the free expression we aim to enable.”
Regarding this, the AGU highlighted that the confirmation of the change in the policy on hate speech in Brazil causes serious concern because “it could represent fertile ground for violation of legislation and constitutional precepts that protect fundamental rights of Brazilian citizens”, adding that the informed changes by Meta “are not adequate to Brazilian legislation and are not sufficient to protect fundamental rights”.
AGU also highlighted that Meta’s new position contradicts the defense that the company made in the judgment on the Marco Civil da Internet at the Federal Supreme Court (STF). “In such demonstrations, company representatives assured that the then content governance policies were sufficient to protect the fundamental rights of users”, says the folder.
The AGU will hold a public hearing, this Thursday (16), to discuss with government bodies and civil society entities the actions to deal with the issue of social networks based on the changes announced by Meta.
“The hearing will discuss the effects of the new policy implemented by Meta, the duty of care of digital platforms, the risks of replacing the Fact Checking Program abroad and the measures to be adopted with the aim of ensuring compliance with legislation national and the protection of rights”, says the AGU statement.
Understand
Last week, Meta announced a series of changes and the alignment of the company’s policy with the government agenda of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, who defends the deregulation of the digital environment and is against the fact-checking policy. Then, Meta released the possibility of prejudiced offenses on the platforms.
