Biden Deems Meta’s Choice to Discontinue Fact-Checking Initiative as “Truly Shameful”
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is shifting away from third-party fact-checking entities in favor of a Community Notes model that relies on user participation.
President Joe Biden has voiced his criticism regarding Meta’s choice to eliminate its existing social media fact-checking program.
This week, Meta announced it would discontinue the use of its third-party fact-checking service for content review in the United States.
According to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the decision was made because the current fact-checking program has become “too politically biased,” leading to censorship and diminished trust.
When asked about this decision at a January 10 press conference, Biden responded, “It’s just completely contrary to everything America stands for.”
Prior to this week, Meta had collaborated with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to implement its third-party fact-checking program. The IFCN is managed by the Poynter Institute, which is also responsible for the PolitiFact fact-checking outlet.
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Meta is not eliminating fact-checking entirely. Instead, Zuckerberg stated that the platforms will transition to a “more comprehensive community notes” system, akin to the one used by social media platform X. This new model will initially be implemented in the United States.
Rather than depending on organizations like the IFCN to assess content, X’s community notes feature empowers users to provide their input directly. Users on X can suggest fact-checking notes for controversial posts and then evaluate whether these notes are accurate and relevant. Posts with significant community feedback will display a fact-checking note explaining the inaccuracies or missing context.
Zuckerberg also revealed plans to relocate Meta’s content moderation team from California to Texas, stating this change aims to address concerns regarding team biases.
Zuckerberg and other executives at Meta have defended this move as essential for reinstating free speech and expression on their platforms.
“Excessive harmless content is being censored, too many users are incorrectly subjected to ‘Facebook jail,’ and our response times need improvement,” Kaplan stated.
Fact-checking and content moderation decisions at Meta had sparked controversy during the 2020 presidential election cycle.
In a January 10 podcast interview with Joe Rogan, Zuckerberg claimed that officials from the Biden administration frequently contacted Meta with demands to remove or suppress various content, including memes and satirical posts.
The Epoch Times reached out to the White House for a comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
