META ENDS U.S FACT CHECKING PLATFORMS-Mark Zuckerberg seeks to mend fences with the incoming Trump administration
Meta said it scrapped its U.S. fact-checking program Platforms on Tuesday and reduced curbs on discussions around contentious topics like immigration and gender identity, following criticism from conservatives as Donald Trump prepares to take office as U.S. president for a second time.
This move is Meta’s biggest overhaul of its approach to managing political content on its services in recent memory and comes as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has signaled a desire to mend fences with the incoming administration. The changes will affect Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the world’s biggest social media platforms with more than 3 billion users globally.
In place of a formal fact-checking program to address claims posted on Meta’s platforms, Zuckerberg instead plans to implement a system of “community notes” similar to that used on Elon Musk-owned X.
Meta also will focus its automated systems on removing “high-severity violations” and illegal content such as terrorism and illicit drugs, Zuckerberg said. It will stop proactively scanning for hate speech and other types of rule-breaking, and review such posts only in response to user reports. Meta’s spokesperson says the changes currently apply to the U.S. market, and will not affect the European Union.
