{"id":209818,"date":"2025-01-07T15:28:38","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/07\/meta-to-replace-biased-fact-checkers-with-moderation-by-users\/"},"modified":"2025-01-07T15:28:38","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T15:28:38","slug":"meta-to-replace-biased-fact-checkers-with-moderation-by-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/07\/meta-to-replace-biased-fact-checkers-with-moderation-by-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta to replace ‘biased’ fact-checkers with moderation by users"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Meta<\/div>


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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
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Meta is abandoning the use of independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with X-style “community notes” where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users.<\/p>\n

In a video posted alongside a blog post<\/a> by the company on Tuesday, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were “too politically biased” and it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression”.<\/p>\n

Joel Kaplan, who is replacing Sir Nick Clegg<\/a> as Meta’s head of global affairs, wrote that the company’s reliance on independent moderators was “well-intentioned” but had too often resulted in the censoring of users.<\/p>\n

However, campaigners against hate speech online have reacted with dismay – and suggested the changed is really motivated by getting on the right side of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Zuckerberg’s announcement is a blatant attempt to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration \u2013 with harmful implications”, said Ava Lee, from Global Witness, a campaign group which describes itself as seeking to hold big tech to account.<\/p>\n

“Claiming to avoid “censorship” is a political move to avoid taking responsibility for hate and disinformation that platforms encourage and facilitate”, she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Emulating X<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Meta’s current third-party fact checking program, introduced in 2016, refers posts that appear to be false or misleading to independent organisations to assess their credibility.<\/p>\n

Posts flagged as inaccurate by third-party experts could display labels offering viewers more information on why, and be moved lower in users’ feeds.<\/p>\n

The move to a community notes system will be phased in “in the US first” over the coming months, Meta says. It has not spelt out when or if it will be introduced elsewhere.<\/p>\n

The system – which the tech giant says it has seen “work on X” – involves people of different viewpoints agreeing on notes which add context or clarifications to controversial posts.<\/p>\n

Meta’s <\/b>blog post said it would also “undo the mission creep” of rules and policies -highlighting removal of restrictions on subjects including “immigration, gender and gender identity” – saying these have stemmed political discussion and debate.<\/p>\n

“We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate,” it says. <\/p>\n

“It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

‘A radical swing’<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The changes come as technology firms and their executives prepare for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.<\/p>\n

Trump has previously been a vocal critic of Meta and its approach to content moderation, calling Facebook “an enemy of the people” in March 2024.<\/p>\n

But relations between the two men have since improved – Mr Zuckerberg dined at Trump’s Florida estate<\/a> in Mar-a-Lago in November. <\/p>\n

Meta has also donated $1m to an inauguration fund for Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising free speech,” said Mr Zuckerberg in Tuesday’s video.<\/p>\n

Mr Kaplan replacing Sir Nick Clegg – a former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister – as the company’s president of global affairs has also been interpreted by many analysts as a signal of the firm’s shifting approach to moderation and its changing political priorities. <\/p>\n

Kate Klonick, associate professor of law at St John’s University Law School, said the changes reflected a trend “that has seemed inevitable over the last few years, especially since Musk’s takeover of X”. <\/p>\n

“The private governance of speech on these platforms has increasingly become a point of politics,” she told BBC News.<\/p>\n

Where companies have previously faced pressure to build trust and safety mechanisms to deal with issues like harassment, hate speech, and disinformation, a “radical swing back in the opposite direction” is now underway, she added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Getty Images Meta is abandoning the use of independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with X-style “community notes” where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users. In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were “too politically biased” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[38461,165618,2021,10708,3692,712],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209818"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209818"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209820,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209818\/revisions\/209820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}