Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced he’ll be loosening restrictions on its fact-checking systems on Threads, Instagram, and Facebook, instead opting for a community-driven notes system.

Zuckerberg told the press that he’s also planning to loosen content moderation policies, especially those around political topics.

Related

Meta caught censoring LGBTQ+ content & says it was “mistakenly restricted”
The company reversed the restrictions after a journalist asked about them.

“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 said in his announcement. “More specifically, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.”

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He criticized governments and “legacy media” for pushing “to censor more and more.” He said he was inspired by the 2024 presidential election. Zuckerberg has been making moves to meet with Donald Trump to discuss policy, and he has committed to donating $1 million to the president-elect’s inauguration fund.

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said, adding that content moderation policies will still be aggressive in regulating drugs, terrorism, and child exploitation.

“We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes. Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.”

Civil rights leaders are criticizing Zuckerberg’s move as enabling far-right ideology. Recently, Meta has been caught censoring content with LGBTQ+ hashtags, restricting it from millions of people, including every minor on the site. When a journalist reached out to them for comment, they said it was a mistake and reversed the policy.

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said of the recent announcement: “Zuckerberg’s removal of fact-checking programs and industry-standard hate speech policies make Meta’s platforms unsafe places for users and advertisers alike. Without these necessary hate speech and other policies, Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol, and dehumanizing narratives. With these changes, Meta is continuing to normalize anti-LGBTQ hatred for profit — at the expense of its users and true freedom of expression. Fact-checking and hate speech policies protect free speech.”

GLAAD pointed out in a press release how Meta explicitly allows for the promotion of banning transgender people from teaching and the military and additionally allows for the promotion of exclusion in restrooms.

Additionally, Meta uses the word “transgenderism” in describing how it allows for “political and religious discourse” that claims LGBTQ+ people are mentally ill.

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