Mark Zuckerberg says social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are going to “go back to our roots” by removing fact checkers and replacing them with a “Community Notes” system modeled after the one used by Elon Musk’s X.
Facebook has implemented many “sophisticated systems” in recent years to combat the spread of harmful material online, Zuckerberg said in the post. video messagebut these systems sometimes make mistakes – and now it has reached the point where there are “too many errors and too much censorship.” He also believes the recent election of Donald Trump as US president represents a “cultural inflection point towards re-prioritizing free speech”, which he says has been criticized in recent years by governments and the “legacy media”.
“We’re going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with X-like community notes, starting in the US,” Zuckerberg said. “After Trump was first elected in 2016, mainstream media reported nonstop about how disinformation was a threat to democracy. We have tried in good faith to resolve these issues without becoming arbiters of truth. But the fact checkers were too politically biased. and destroyed more trust than it created, especially in the US.”
Facebook and Instagram will also simplify their content policies to “get rid of many restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are simply not relevant to mainstream discourse” and which are “increasingly used to suppress opinions and block people.” with different ideas.” Enforcement policies will be changed to focus on “unlawful and serious violations,” while “lesser violations” will require a complaint to be filed before any action is taken. Zuckerberg acknowledged that the change means Facebook and Instagram “will be less likely to record bad things,” but said reducing the number of inappropriate removals is a higher priority.
I don’t think anyone would argue that Facebook’s content moderation policies have been particularly good (or even effective) so far, but following in X’s footsteps is a surprising choice. The platform, originally known as Twitter, descended into near-total chaos and uselessness following Elon Musk’s rise to power, resulting in, among other things, the demise of content moderators and him Trust and Safety Team.
The end result of this farcical commitment to free speech, as PC Gamer’s Joshua Wohlens said say it so eloquentlyis that using the platform “has become raw and messy, like wading through the solid, concentrated filth of all the worst comment sections on the internet. Scam after scam after scam after AI video after crypto pump and dump. a complete fire hose, unfit for human life.”
In a surprising twist, Meta’s trust, safety, and content moderation teams will be moved from California to Texas, where Zuckerberg says there will be “less concern about bias on our teams.” This too may be inspired by X, which moved its headquarters from California to Texas in September 2024 and a month later. changed the terms of service take disputes to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas—”a favored venue for conservative activists and business groups,” according to Guardian– although the headquarters of X itself is actually located in the Western District.
Musk responded to Zuckerberg’s announcement with a brief message sent to X: “This is greatX CEO Linda Yaccarino also expressed support for the changes. letter“Fact-checking and moderation do not belong to a select few gatekeepers who can easily introduce their bias into decisions. This is a democratic process that belongs to the many. And as we’ve seen on X since Community Notes Having debuted, he has enjoyed enormous success while preserving the sacred freedom of speech.”
Zuckerberg’s plea in the face of Trump’s promise punish your perceived enemies It’s not subtle, but it’s also not surprising: Companies and executives including Meta, Amazon, Apple CEO Tim Cook and OpenAI chief Sam Altman have donated millions of dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund, in the sort of ritual self-deprecation described NPR like “kissing the ring”.
However, in case it might have been missed, Zuckerberg also wrote a short MAGA-themed commentary about Meta’s planned approach to regulating its platforms outside the US.
“We are going to work with President Trump to fight back against governments around the world that are targeting American companies and demanding even more censorship,” Zuckerberg said. “The United States has the strongest constitutional protections for free speech in the world. There are a growing number of laws in Europe that institutionalize censorship and make it difficult to create anything innovative there. Latin American countries have secret courts that can order companies to make decisions quietly. China has banned our apps from working even in the country.
“The only way to fight back against this global trend is with the support of the US government. And that’s why it’s been so difficult the last four years, when even the US government insisted on censorship. other American companies, it emboldened other governments to go even further. But now we have an opportunity to restore freedom of speech, and I’m glad to take it.”
Meta’s reduction in content moderation—because that’s what it is—seems especially ironic (and outrageous) compared to efforts to improve moderation systems and reduce toxicity in the video game industry. Riot Games, for example, recently introduced a policy of holding Valorant and League of Legends players accountable for “off-platform” behavior; In particular, US senators warned Valve that the company could face “increased scrutiny” from the government if it does not take any measures to combat the spread extremist content on Steam. However, Facebook, which is already not very good at spreading misinformation and toxicity, wants to be more like X, which is an absolute sewer, and that’s apparently fine.
The new Community Notes features on Facebook and Instagram will be rolled out in phases over the next few months, starting in the US.