Will This Change Really ‘Restore Free Expression’ on Meta?
By Movieguide® Contributor
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that the platform is getting rid of its fact-checking program in a bid to “restore free expression” to social media sites like Instagram and Facebook.
In a video, Zuckerberg expressed disappointment that “governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more.”
“After Trump first got elected in 2016 the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy,” he explained. “We tried in good faith to address these concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they created, especially in the U.S.”
Zuckerberg continued, “We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech. So we’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Instead, Meta plans to implement “a community-driven system similar to X’s Community Notes,” per NBC News.
Elsewhere in the video, Zuckerberg revealed the company will “eliminate some content policies around immigration, gender and other hot-button issues and refocus its automated moderation systems on…‘high severity violations,’ relying on users to report other violations.”
It was also announced that Facebook will move its trust and safety and content moderation team from California to Texas.
This news comes amid a series of legal issues Meta and Zuckerberg have been facing. In 2024, Meta was found to owe Ireland’s Data Protection Commission over $100 million for neglecting to protect the privacy and passwords of users in a 2019 data breach.
READ MORE: META FACES MASSIVE FINE FOR PRIVACY VIOLATION
READ MORE: IS META CEO MARK ZUCKERBERG LIABLE FOR CAUSING SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION?
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