Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday, January 7, that company will get rid of fact-checkers on social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. In a video message, Zuckerberg said similar to the platform X, fact-checking will be replaced by community notes that will be phased in over the coming months.
In addition, Meta will simplify content policies and remove a number restrictions on topics such as immigration and gender, as well as change its approach to policy enforcement.
Filters to enforce platform policies will now be set to scan only for high severity violations.
Zuckerberg cited the recent elections as "a cultural turning point towards once again prioritising free speech" and said fact-checkers have been "too politically biased and destroyed more trust than they created".
He added, the US-based content moderators will be moved out of California to Texas, and the company would work with US President-elect Donald Trump to "push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more".
