Mark Zuckerberg announces changes to fact-checking on Meta - what will it look like?

In a new Trumpian era of a free for all on social media, Mr Zuckerberg says he's getting rid of fact checkers at Instagram and Facebook, starting in the United States. He cited free expression as the reason, as ITV News Science Editor Martin Stew reports.

Mark Zuckerberg has announced a series of changes to content moderation and fact-checking on Meta, raising concern among online safety campaigners.

Meta's chief executive says he hopes to "get back to our roots" and restore "free expression on our platforms".

The changes will affect Facebook and Instagram, the company’s two largest social media platforms which have billions of users, as well as its newer platform Threads.

Some of the changes include the replacement of fact-checkers with community notes, the removal of restrictions on topics that are the subject of frequent political debate, and an increasing reliance on users to report policy violations.

“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Mr Zuckerberg said in a video.

So what are the changes being announced?

Replacement of fact-checkers with community notes

Mr Zuckerberg said Meta will get rid of fact-checkers and "replace them with community notes similar to X."

As a result, Meta will rely on users to add notes to posts that might be false or misleading, instead of using news organisations or other third-party groups.

It will be rolled out in the US over the next few months.

“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," Mr Zuckerberg said.

He said that after Trump was elected in 2016, the "legacy media wrote non-stop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy" and that Meta tried to address the concerns without "becoming the arbiters of truth."

“But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, particularly in the US," Mr Zuckerberg said.

The policy signals a move towards a more conservative-leaning focus on free speech by Mr Zuckerberg, who met Donald Trump in November after he won the US election.

A community notes system is likely to please the president-elect, who criticised Meta’s fact-checking feature for penalising conservative voices.

Meta donated a million dollars to support Mr Trump’s inauguration in December, and has since appointed several Trump allies to high-ranking positions at the firm.

The demoting of fact-checked posts will be stopped

Meta will also stop demoting fact-checked posts and make labels indicating misleading posts less “obtrusive”.

In a statement, Mr Kaplan added that Meta’s moderation policies had “gone too far”.

He said: “We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see.”

Rules around content moderation loosened

Mr Kaplan said Meta would also begin loosening some of its rules around content moderation, saying it wanted to “undo the mission creep that has made our rules too restrictive and too prone to over-enforcement”.

He said the site would “remove restrictions” on topics that are the subject of frequent political debate – including immigration, gender identify and gender – adding that it was “not right” that things could be said on the floor of the US Congress but not on Meta platforms.

Use of automated systems scanning for "less severe violations" stopped

Mr Kaplan also said Meta would stop using automated systems to scan for policy violations for “less severe violations” and would rely on users reporting an issue before taking action.

He confirmed Meta would continue to use automated systems for “illegal and high-severity violations”, such as terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams, but said automated moderation had resulted in “too many mistakes and too much content being censored”.

What is the reaction to the changes?

One online safety charity said it was “dismayed” by the decision.

Ian Russell, chairman of the Molly Rose Foundation (MRF), said the decision was a “major concern for safety online”.

The MRF was set up by Mr Russell and his family in memory of his daughter, who killed herself aged 14 in November 2017 after viewing harmful content on social media.

“We are dismayed that the company intends to stop proactive moderation of many forms of harmful content and to only act if and when a user complaint is received,” Mr Russell said.

“Meta currently claims the overwhelming majority of harmful material they remove is found by themselves rather than reported by users.

“We are urgently clarifying the scope of these measures, including whether this will apply to suicide, self-harm and depressive content.

“These moves could have dire consequences for many children and young adults.”

UK fact-checking charity Full Fact said the decision was likely to help misinformation more easily spread online.

Chris Morris, chief executive of Full Fact, said: "Meta's decision to end its partnership with fact checkers in the US is disappointing and a backwards step that risks a chilling effect around the world."From safeguarding elections to protecting public health to dissipating potential unrest on the streets, fact checkers are first responders in the information environment."Our specialists are trained to work in a way that promotes credible evidence and prioritises tackling harmful information - we believe the public has a right to access our expertise.Social media expert Matt Navarra said Meta's approach could also be part of broader efforts from tech firms pushing back against international regulation.

Countries including the UK and other regions such as the EU have begun introducing regulations for social media platforms for the first time, and new competition laws are also looking to curb the power of big US tech firms."I think Zuckerberg isn't shy about the political motivations behind the move, because in his statement he criticises the governments outside the US, including in Europe, saying Europe is institutionalising censorship - this language signals a broader fight against international regulation," Mr Navarra said.

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