Meta chief drops factcheckers, but don’t bet on move to go well with his advertisers
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with new global policy head Joel Kaplan. Meta has made a raft of changes in recent days seen as moving closer to incoming US president Donald Trump. Photograph: Tom Brenner/The New York Times
The Instagram and Facebook owner has made some changes that might lead onlookers to conclude, at best, that the company is actively courting the conservative ear out of self-preservation; at worst it comes off as craven.replaced Nick Clegg as head of global policy, who exited the company. Donald Trump ally and UFC chief Dana White has just been appointed to Meta’s board.
Zuckerberg announced the move in a video that seemed designed to appeal specifically to the MAGA in Chief. Not only were they ditching the fact-checkers but Meta has also loosened the restrictions on permitted speech on its platforms. Zuckerberg claimed fact-checkers had become “too politically biased” and “destroyed more trust than they’ve created”, something the fact-checkers themselves have hit back against.
There are undoubtedly benefits to this move for Meta, which is facing an antitrust case in the US in the near future. Fact-checking isn’t a problem-free programme given the sheer volume of content on Instagram and Facebook, and it is a partnership that costs the company money. Better, it seems, to tap into the community.
But whatever Meta’s problems may be with overzealous content moderation, community notes are unlikely to be the answer, not least because it is not clear that community notes has worked for X. In theory it’s a nice idea: the community polices itself. In practice X is still rife with misleading information and you don’t have to look too hard to find it.
Meta, on the other hand, still has a healthy advertising business. But if advertisers find their content alongside conspiracy theories and misinformation will they be willing to continue to invest? And if that falls away how will shareholders react?
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