On Tuesday, the company Meta announced changes to its content moderation practices that will effectively end the fact-checking program aimed at combating the spread of misinformation on its social networks, reports Tengri Life.
Instead of relying on news organizations and other third-party groups, Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, will depend on users to add notes to posts that contain false or misleading information.
Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated in a video message that the new protocol, set to take effect in the U.S. in the coming months, is similar to the Community Notes system utilized by platform X (formerly Twitter).
"It's time to return to our roots related to free expression," he said.
Zuckerberg also noted that the current fact-checking system has reached a point where there are "too many errors and censorship."
The abandonment of a policy that has been in place for several years is a clear indication of how the company is preparing for Donald Trump's presidency just weeks before it begins, according to The New York Times.
"Meta described the changes in a spirit of acknowledging mistakes: Joel Kaplan, the newly appointed head of global policy at Meta, stated that the company aims to 'get rid of excessive tightening of rules that have become too restrictive and prone to overreach,'" the report said.
According to a source familiar with the situation, Meta executives recently informed representatives of Trump's team about the upcoming changes.
"It seems Zuckerberg took a cue from Trump's favorite tech mogul, Elon Musk. Musk uses the Community Notes system to flag misleading posts on platform X. Since its acquisition, Musk, a major donor to Trump, has increasingly positioned X as a platform that supports Trump's new presidency," the publication noted.
The newspaper explained that these actions by the company have "thrilled" Trump's conservative allies, many of whom were unhappy with Meta's practice of adding warnings to dubious or false posts.
Trump has long criticized Zuckerberg, claiming that the fact-checking feature unfairly targets conservative posts.
Previously, we reported that the elected U.S. president complained about Musk's intrusiveness in a private conversation with a journalist. Read more details in the article.