Meta has announced major changes to its content moderation policies, marking a shift towards its foundational commitment to free expression. These changes are similar to what happened when 'Twitter' transitioned to 'X', under Elon Musk. In a video, Mark Zuckerberg, the chief of Meta, explained the changes that are going to be introduced within various products of the company. Zuckerberg said, "It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.”
In the United States, Meta plans to phase out its third-party fact-checking programme, replacing it with a "Community Notes" system similar to X. This system relies on users to identify and add context to potentially misleading posts. Meta claims that this model will reduce bias and promote transparency in content evaluation.
Meta claims the new system will depend on diverse contributors and cross-perspective agreements to ensure fairness. Yet, the lack of professional fact-checkers raises concerns about the platform's ability to manage harmful narratives, especially during politically sensitive events like elections. X also witnessed surge in misinformation after Musk got rid of moderators within the company.
Meta is also easing restrictions on political discourse, including topics like immigration and gender identity, which Meta says were overly censored previously. This change aims to address what CEO Mark Zuckerberg describes as "over-enforcement" that stifles legitimate political debate. Meta will continue to enforce rules against illegal content and high-severity violations but will rely more on user reports for less severe infractions.
Additionally, Meta plans to reintroduce more civic and political content into user feeds, offering a personalised approach where users can control how much of it they see. The company says this move responds to user demand for greater engagement with political content.
These policy changes signify a broader shift within Meta, which came just before Donald Trump's inauguration as US President. The company maintains that its new approach aligns with Zuckerberg's long-standing commitment to free expression, as outlined in his 2019 Georgetown University speech. Nonetheless, the challenge of balancing free speech with the responsibility to curb harmful content remains complex.
Zuckerberg himself agreed that these changes could lead to more 'bad stuff' on the platform but he justified it by saying that lesser innocent posts will be taken down. He said, “The reality is that this is a trade-off. It means that we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.”
Meta has witnessed some major changes in the past weeks after Trump won the US elections. The parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook has three new directors on the board, which includes UFC CEO and Trump supporter Dana White. Joel Kaplan, a renowned Republican has also been elevated within the company as the Chief of Global Affairs, replacing Nick Clegg.