
Love It or Hate It, Meta Ditched Fact-Checking. What It Means for You
By Movieguide® Contributor
Meta is making some positive changes this New Year. CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the social media giant, which owns Facebook, Threads, Instagram and WhatsApp, will take a step back from its controversial fact-checking practice.
“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram. I gave a speech at Georgetown five years ago about the importance about protecting free expression, and I still believe this today,” he said in an Instagram video announcing the change.
Zuckerberg continued to explain that in an attempt to protect people from seriously harmful content online, Meta created “complex systems,” but these systems sometimes make mistakes and censor things they should not.
“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” he said.
In the caption of the post, he explained, “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression. We’re replacing fact checkers with Community Notes, simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes. Looking forward to this next chapter.”
Many in the comment section of the post were very excited about the news.
“Thank you Jesus! I love this ‼️IN JESUS NAME,” one user exclaimed. “Awesome news! It was getting to the point where the bots were out of control,” another person added.
Some people, on the other hand, are appalled and have threatened to boycott Meta, causing searches like “how to delete Facebook [account]” or “how to delete Instagram [account]” to skyrocket on Google, per TechCrunch.
READ MORE: WHY USERS ARE FURIOUS AT THIS SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY
FactCheck.org announced the end of its partnership with Meta, saying, “Meta is ending its partnership with U.S. fact-checking organizations, such as ours, but we’d like to reassure our readers: FactCheck.org isn’t going anywhere.”
Meta’s decision to drop third-party fact-checking for Community Notes — similar to Elon Musk’s X — is one of several changes arriving on the platform, NBC News reported. Other updates include pulling back “on content moderation around political discourse,” disbanding its DEI team and updating its policy on hateful conduct.
Although people unfortunately say mean and hateful things online, censorship is not the answer. Freedom of speech is a God-given right to every person, and God encourages us to use our words to build each other up. Ephesians 2:29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
READ MORE: WILL THIS CHANGE REALLY ‘RESTORE FREE EXPRESSION’ ON META?