Facebook parent company Meta terminates fact-checking program and adopts “community annotation”, Zuckerberg: Return to the basics of free speech

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Facebook parent company Meta terminates fact-checking program and adopts “community annotation”, Zuckerberg: Return to the basics of free speech
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credit: Meta, editing screenshot synthesis

Social media giant Meta announced today (8th) that it will terminate the “Fact Checking Project” and replace related functions with “Community Notes” similar to X (formerly Twitter). Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg ( Mark Zuckberg said in the official video that this move will return social networks to the “fundamentals of free speech.”

According to ABCNews, Meta said it would replace fact-checkers with social annotations starting in the United States, “simplifying content standards and working to reduce errors.” The new rules will not only apply to Facebook, but will also apply to Meta such as Instagram and Threads. The platform it belongs to.

Zuckerberg mentioned in a statement in the video that fact-checkers are “overly politically biased,” especially in the United States. Instead of increasing public trust, they have destroyed “more trust than they created.” Community notes can Provide users with relevant information about what they see while reducing the impact of bias.

Zuckerberg added that “the recent election feels like a cultural turning point, once again prioritizing free speech.” Meta will lift restrictions on discussion of certain mainstream topics (such as immigration and gender issues), focusing on “illegal and Enforcement of “serious violations”.

Meta set up fact-checkers when Donald Trump was elected President of the United States in 2016, and cooperated with a third-party independent verification agency certified by IFCN (International Fact-Checking Network) to be responsible for identifying, reviewing and evaluating arbitrary behavior on Meta’s social platforms Spreading misinformation.

After the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, Trump’s account was suspended by Facebook for inciting violence. Although the account was released in early 2023, Trump has always been unhappy with Meta.

As the new term was approaching (1/20), after Trump won the election, he met with Zuckerberg at Trump’s private club Mar-a-Lago in Florida in December last year. Later, Meta reported to Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee for the first time Donated US$1 million, and now this new rule has been introduced to “allow the community to return to its original freedom of expression.”

As a competitor of Facebook, Elon Musk, the boss of We should show goodwill to our new allies.

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s global chief of affairs, pointed out on the official blog that as Meta’s fact-checking system becomes more and more complex, “although many of these efforts have good intentions,” the system has expanded to the point where “we make too many mistakes.” situation, which has frustrated many users of social networks.

“Too much harmless content is being censored, too many people find themselves wrongfully imprisoned in Facebook jail, and when they encounter problems, we are often too slow to respond.”

Meta’s content moderation changes have aroused applause from netizens who have been mistakenly banned by the system. However, many people are worried that this move may open the door to false information and extreme remarks, allowing Meta’s social platforms to be flooded with more harmful content.

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