Meta is Getting Rid of Fact-Checkers to ‘Reduce Censorship’ on Facebook and Instagram

CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg says the company is getting rid of fact-checkers from Instagram, Facebook, and Threads in a move that will “dramatically reduce the amount of censorship” on the platforms.

In a video message posted today, Zuckerberg says he is focusing on freedom of expression — insisting that Donald Trump’s recent reelection to the White House is a “cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.”

Meta platforms will adopt Community Notes, similar to X, which crowdsources information to label potentially misleading information.

Zuckerberg says that Meta’s fact-checkers in the United States have been “too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they created.” He adds that the Trust and Safety and Content Moderation Teams will be moved from California to Texas. Zuck suggests that there will be “less concern” about the bias of content moderation teams in Texas than in California.

The Meta CEO doubled down on his criticism of the company’s previous content moderators saying that restrictions on topics like immigration and gender are “out of touch with mainstream discourse.”

“What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas,” adds Zuckerberg. “And it’s gone too far. I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms.”

Meta also intends to dial back the sensitive content filters across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads therefore reducing the amount of censorship. Zuckerberg acknowledges that this new policy means the company will “catch less bad stuff” but the trade-off is that it will also “reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.”

In keeping with the spirit of the “new era”, Zuckerberg says Meta will bring back civic content. Users can expect to start seeing more political posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

At the end of the video, Meta took a swipe at Europe for “institutionalizing censorship” while adding that he will work with President Trump to “push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.”

Zuckerberg also took aim at Biden’s administration accusing it of pushing for censorship and emboldening other governments from around the world.

“Now we have an opportunity to restore free expression and I am excited to take it,” adds Zuckerberg. “It’ll take time to get this right. And these are complex systems that are never going to be perfect.”