Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that the social media company will remove “fact-checkers” from Facebook and Instagram and will stop censoring the free speech of millions of Americans on social media.
“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 video message on Tuesday. “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 explained that ever since President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory in 2016, legacy media outlets warned that “misinformation was a threat to democracy.” As a result, Zuckerberg said Meta “tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth.” However, he admitted, “The fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the U.S.”
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg added in Tuesday’s video message. “So we’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Zuckerberg explained that what began as a movement for greater inclusivity has “increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas.” The Meta CEO also acknowledged that Meta’s content moderation and fact-checking policies have resulted in too many “mistakes” that cause many social media users to be censored.
READ MORE: Biden-Harris admin exposed for pressuring Facebook to censor Americans
Moving forward, Zuckerberg said the social media company will work to remove “illegal and high-severity violations” while waiting on other people to report “lower-severity violations” before Facebook and Instagram “take action.”
Zuckerberg also announced that political content, which was previously reduced on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, will soon be brought back to the social media platforms. Additionally, Zuckerberg announced that Meta’s content moderation team will be relocated from California to Texas.
The Post Millennial reported that Zuckerberg, who recently visited Mar-a-Lago for a meeting with the president-elect, also indicated that Meta will “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.”
Following Meta’s announcement that the social media company plans to stop censoring free speech, Trump told Fox News that Meta’s “presentation was excellent” and that the company has “come a long way.”
