Fact-checking on Facebook was already a lost cause

On January 7, Mark Zukeberg made a less startling announcement.

Meta’s CEO said his company discontinuation of third-party fact-checking programstating that “experts, like everyone else, have their own biases and points of view.” Instead, it will allow “more talking” and rely on a community notes feature created by users, as Elon Musk X already does.

It’s the culmination of a years-long shift away from the social media giant. Right-wing media always flourished on Facebook, while critics on the left have long criticized the company for everything from ensuring genocide allow hate speech prosper. But congressional and campaign Republicans scolded Meta for kicking Donald Trump off her platform after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and for close monitoring misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

But in recent years the company has taken exaggerated steps to demonstrate that they are not left-handed. Meta let Trump join its platforms in 2023 it was announced that it depriority of political content on Instagram and Threads, and this week by former Bush White House official Joel Kaplan Head of Global Affairs. Oh and Meta gave 1 million dollars to Trump’s inaugural committee.

“This is a great opportunity for us to reset the balance in favor of freedom of expression,” Kaplan said. Fox News in an interview. “We are returning to our roots and freedom of expression.”

As Trump takes office as president on Jan. 20, Mehta knows he needs to play nice with the administration. Trump previously claimed that Zuckerberg plotted against him during the 2020 election and wrote that he would “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he tried it again.

But the decision to end Meta’s fact-checking program is as much a reflection of the current state of its main platform, Facebook, as it is a political proposal by the party in power. I mean, have you seen Facebook lately?