Meta's Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and controlling shareholder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced on Tuesday that Meta will shut down its third-party fact-checking unit and replace it with a community notes model in their social media applications.
The model, which is similar to the one used by 'X' (formerly known as Twitter), will be adopted by the firm.
Zuckerberg called Meta's fact checkers "too politically biased" and said they "destroyed more trust than they created."
According to the new programme, Meta will no longer write Community Notes or decide which ones show up. They will be written and rated by contributing users. Community Notes will require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings, similar to 'X.'
View this post on InstagramThe tech firm also said it intends to be transparent about how different viewpoints inform the notes displayed in our apps and is "working on the right way" to share this information.
The company will also be "getting rid of a number of restrictions" it set in place regarding the discussion of topics with political impact, especially in the United States, such as immigration, gender identity, and gender.
Zuckerberg called these restrictions "out of touch with the mainstream discourse.".
The founder of Facebook also said that the company will be moving its Trust and Safety and Content Moderation Teams from the state of California and have their US-based content review team in Texas.
It had also dedicated resources to better recover accounts simpler with multiple reviewers now determining whether a post or account on its social media applications will be taken down. The firm said it is testing facial recognition technology and started using AI large language models to give a second opinion on some content before enforcement actions are taken.
Zuckerberg also said that the company will be working with US President-elect Donald Trump to push back on other governments pushing to "censor more."
He cited Europe, Latin American countries, and China as examples of "pushing censorship" on American companies.
Zuckerberg said that the US had also "gone after American companies" and "censored free speech" and emboldened other countries to follow suit.
"The only way we are going to push back on this global trend is with the support of the US government," Zuckerberg said.
This is cool pic.twitter.com/kUkrvu6YKY
Elon Musk, the chief executive officer of 'X' (formerly known as Twitter) whose community notes model will be informing Meta's programme approved of the the news saying," This is cool."
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