In a surprising move that echoes recent shifts in the social media landscape, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has declared a significant policy overhaul across his platforms, including Instagram and Threads, to prioritize free speech and transparency. Zuckerberg announced plans to dismantle Meta’s traditional fact-checking program in favor of a community-driven approach similar to X’s (formerly Twitter) Community Notes system.
According to Zuckerberg, the recent U.S. elections have acted as a “cultural tipping point” towards prioritizing free expression, prompting this major policy change. “We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg stated in a video posted on Tuesday morning.
The new system will allow users to contribute notes that provide context or counterpoints to posts, aiming to offer a more democratic form of content moderation. This initiative is set to start in the U.S., with plans to expand globally. “We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes,” Zuckerberg acknowledged, suggesting that the community could better manage misinformation and bias than centralized fact-checkers.
This announcement marks a departure from Meta’s previously stringent content moderation practices, which often came under fire for perceived political bias and censorship. The move is seen as a direct response to criticisms that Meta’s fact-checking was not only flawed but also stifled open discourse.
Zuckerberg also emphasized that while the focus would shift towards free speech, severe violations like those involving drugs, terrorism, and child exploitation would continue to be aggressively moderated. “We will aggressively moderate content related to drugs, terrorism, and child exploitation,” he assured, indicating a balance between freedom and responsibility.
