Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that third-party fact checkers will be replaced by “community notes” on Facebook and Instagram, to help address the perception of bias.
“Fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” Zuckerberg said in a video post on Facebook that announced the changes. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far.”
The community notes are likely to be similar to the system currently employed on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. However, as has been seen, removing fact checkers could allow for some harmful content to appear, which Zuckerberg also acknowledged.
“We have seen from Mark Zuckerberg’s multiple visits to various congressional hearings that he is a well-spoken businessman capable of saying all the right things,” said Susan Campbell, distinguished lecturer in the Communication, Film and Media Studies Department at the University of New Haven.
“That ability has allowed him and other tech execs to continue to rake in money while pumping poison into our informational bloodstream. It’s hard to fathom how removing the tiny guard rails that had been in place at Meta is a good business model, though we should all acknowledge that Zuckerberg and the others didn’t get where they are by making stupid business decisions,” she added. “If this is a smart business decision, I cannot see how. It is definitely the wrong decision if you want your company to serve the public good.”
Technology industry analyst Susan Schreiner of C4 Trends also warned the removal of fact checkers could make the platform less safe for the majority of its users.
“By declaring a free-for-all in the name of free speech, has anyone even considered the tragedies that will ensue? Who will be responsible for the liabilities to come,” Schreiner noted. “Perhaps this move is a sign of the pendulum swinging from the more regimented curation during the pandemic now to the other extreme. We’ll wait to see what comes next.”
A request for comment was sent to Meta.
The timing – which is coming just two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House – has been seen to be about appeasing the new administration, especially as right-wing voices have claimed throughout the last four years that they were being censored on Meta’s platforms. Others had taken it even further and even alleged that Facebook helped “steal” the 2020 election.
The removal of fact checkers is a major shift from 2021, when the social network shut down a “Stop the Steal” group after it continued to spread falsehoods about the election, and then suspended then-President Trump following the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol Building.
“In recent months, Donald Trump has stated, ‘I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,’ and threatened Zuckerberg that ‘if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison,’ referring to the 2024 election,” explained Rob Lalka, professor at Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business and author of The Venture Alchemists: How Big Tech Turned Profits Into Power.
“It is obvious that Zuckerberg has realized he needs to get on the Trump train during the new administration, and he’s doing so quickly,” Lalka continued. “These shifts matter, but the changes Zuckerberg announced today in Meta’s approach to content on Facebook, Instagram and Threads are a dramatic transformation that will change people’s experiences of their lives online.”
The first major policy shift may be getting rid of fact checkers, and adopting the community notes instead. It may not be the last, but it could be the most controversial change coming to the platform.
“The move to ‘restore free expression’ on the coattails of a $1 million donation into the administration working to align policies closer to what X is doing is difficult to trust given the ideological alignment between Zuckerberg and Trump,” said Dr. Lisa Strohman, clinical psychologist, attorney and author.
“Ultimately, removing these third-party moderators may or may not be a good idea depending on how it is implemented,” added Strohman, who is serving as a testifying expert for the federal multidistrict litigation against Google, Meta, TikTok, SnapChat and Bytedance.
She warned that there remains a risk in simplifying the policies without safeguarding users against harmful content, but said it illustrates the delicate balance between free expression and harm.
“Zuckerberg’s comments stating that the moderators had created more harm than good, citing a ‘lack of trust’ exemplifies the natural issue of bias that is introduced with human moderators in the space,” said Strohman.
Passing The Blame
Moreover, by carving out “political speech” as one that specifically shouldn’t be edited, it may attempt to be a truce or peace offering rather than a corporate shift where a founder is reconciling his place in history and making amends, Strohman acknowledged.
“Ultimately this will return control to the users and allow more autonomy as he removes third-party oversight, however this could also fuel silo spaces where only certain viewpoints are heard, reinforcing extreme ideologies and deepening societal divisions,” Strohman further warned.
The social media platforms have fought any attempts at regulation, and instead have adopted policies that are in line with those in charge. Thus, it may not be that surprising that Meta would again shift course as the Biden era comes to an end, and the second act of Trump is about to begin.
“By directly crediting Elon Musk’s company policies in announcing these shifts, and by claiming the Biden Administration coerced prior censorship and now blaming ‘the legacy media’ directly, Mark Zuckerberg is attempting to reinvent himself for a new era now – the Trump era,” said Lalka.
However, while it may seem to be good business for Meta, at least for the next four years, these recent changes will likely have lasting consequences.
“Even Zuckerberg admitted today: ‘It means that we’re going to catch less bad stuff,'” Lalka continued. “Future historians take note.”