Meta will replace its fact checking program with the “community notes” system pioneered by Elon Musk’s X as part of the tech giant’s move to revive free speech on its social media platforms, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday morning.
Over the years, Meta has been found to have engaged in censorship of conservatives at the behest of the Biden administration. The company is now moving away from those dubious practices less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The change will affect Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
“We’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said in a five-minute video. “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.”
Zuckerberg said after Trump won the 2016 election, Meta tried addressing concerns made by the “legacy media . . . about how misinformation was a threat to democracy.” As part of that effort, Facebook partnered with a number of prominent legacy media outlets which were tasked with adjudicating the veracity of high-profile stories that were receiving significant attention on the platform. But the fact-checkers were “too politically biased,” he admitted, which is why Meta is ending the program altogether.
The social media conglomerate will also be simplifying its content moderation policies, which Zuckerberg said have “gone too far,” and encourage discourse around divisive topics like immigration and gender instead of shutting down users for their heterodox opinions or beliefs.
Meta is also set to change how it enforces its policies, namely by “tackling illegal and high severity violations” while letting a low severity violation be reported before an action is taken. Before, Meta’s content filters used to target any policy violation.
“The problem here is that the filters make mistakes and take down a lot of content that they shouldn’t,” Zuckerberg said. “So by dialing them back, we’re going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms.”
There will also be a return to civic content on Meta’s three main platforms. In the past, Meta stopped recommending political posts after users requested to stop seeing such content. But because “we’re in a new era now,” as Zuckerberg said, Meta will bring back civic content while working to keep the discourse “friendly and positive.”
Meta’s trust and safety and content moderation teams will also be moving out of California to Texas, “where there’s less concern about the bias of our teams,” Zuckerberg added.
Lastly, Meta will work closely with the incoming Trump administration to restore free expression worldwide as numerous countries censor online content.
Zuckerberg said this will be an easier problem to tackle with the support of the U.S. government now that a free speech-friendly president will enter office. He noted this was impossible to do over the past four years during the Biden administration, which pushed for censorship itself.
“The bottom line is that after years of having our content moderation work focused primarily on removing content, it is time to focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our systems, and getting back to our roots about giving people voice,” Zuckerberg concluded in the video.
The announcement comes after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg dined with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in November, congratulated the president-elect on his electoral victory, and said he is looking forward to working with the incoming administration.
Trump previously criticized Zuckerberg during his 2024 presidential campaign and even threatened to jail the tech tycoon if he interfered in the latest election. Trump has made past remarks about how Zuckerberg interfered in the 2020 election by paying over $400 million to influence elections across the nation in what was dubbed “Zuckerbucks.”
In the past four to five years, Facebook has censored critical information regarding Covid-19 misinformation after the Biden administration pressured Big Tech to do so. Zuckerberg admitted as much in a letter to the House Judiciary Committee last year.
The social media platform also took measures to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story prior to the 2020 election. According to a House Judiciary report published in October, the FBI trained Facebook and Twitter to treat the bombshell story as a "hack-and-leak" Russian operation that involved President Joe Biden's son.
With Meta’s plan to prioritize free speech in a working relationship with the White House over the next four years, it appears Trump and Zuckerberg's relationship is on the mend after their November meeting.
Following Trump’s reelection victory in November, Meta has taken significant steps in changing its leadership to match the company’s renewed vision.
Last week, Joel Kaplan was named the new head of Meta’s global policy team. Kaplan is one of the social media company’s most prominent Republicans, who has advocated against restrictions on political speech on its platforms and helped change Facebook’s algorithm in a way that would champion conservative publications on the app.
On Monday, Meta appointed three new board directors: UFC CEO Dana White, Exor CEO John Elkann, and tech investor Charlie Songhurst. White is the most notable member tapped, considering he is a strong supporter of Trump and has organized the president-elect’s appearances at UFC matches.
"I've never been interested in joining a board of directors until I got the offer to join Meta's board. I am a huge believer that social media and AI are the future," White said in a statement. "I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level."
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