Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook and Instagram will be scaling back their fact-checking program, just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The Meta CEO cited concerns over political bias, stating that the fact-checkers “have been too politically biased and have eroded more trust than they’ve built, particularly in the U.S.”
In an interview with Fox & Friends on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said, “The recent elections feel like a cultural tipping point toward prioritizing free speech once again.” He emphasized that Meta would refocus on its core principles, aiming to “reduce mistakes, simplify policies, and restore free expression on our platforms.”
The fact-checking initiative will be replaced with a community notes system, similar to the approach used by Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter). Additionally, Meta platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, will no longer impose restrictions on politically sensitive topics like immigration and gender, labeling previous policies as “out of touch with mainstream discourse.”
