Meta Abandons Fact-Checking Program Amidst Controversy
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Meta Abandons Fact-Checking Program Amidst Controversy
In a move that has sparked intense debate, Meta is scrapping its fact-checking program in favor of a crowdsourced model that prioritizes “free expression.”
INCNews247 reports that the shift in content moderation policy comes less than two weeks before Donald Trump’s reinstatement as President.
Meta’s decision to abandon its fact-checking program, which has been in place for years, has raised concerns about the potential spread of misinformation and hate speech online.
The company, which operates Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, had previously funded fact-checking efforts to review content.
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However, many Republicans had criticized these policies, arguing that they unfairly targeted right-wing viewpoints.
The timing of Meta’s decision has also raised eyebrows, given Trump’s history of criticizing the company’s content moderation policies.
INCNews247 recalls, last year, Trump threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, saying he could “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he interfered with the 2024 election.
Since Trump’s electoral victory, Zuckerberg has attempted to mend their relationship by donating $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund and promoting conservative Joel Kaplan to become Meta’s new global policy chief.
The new crowdsourced model, known as Community Notes, will rely on unpaid users to police content, rather than third-party experts.
This approach has been championed by Trump ally Elon Musk at X.
While conservatives and free-speech activists have praised the decision, watchdogs and social media experts have warned of its potential consequences.
Valerie Wirtschafter, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted that while crowdsourced fact-checking can be valuable, Meta’s approach is “really, really irresponsible” given the lack of proper testing and scalability.
Others have expressed concerns that the new model will exacerbate the spread of misinformation, which Meta has already struggled to contain.
