Meta ends fact-checks, sparking concern about misinformation

The shift marks a profound change in how the company moderates content, raising questions about the implications for misinformation and hate speech.
CRITICS Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, had long funded fact-checking efforts in which thirdparty organizations like the Associated Press review content. These efforts aimed to combat widespread documented misinformation campaigns on Facebook, especially around elections. But many Republicans chafed at the oversight, saying it amounted to policing political thought. Donald Trump wrote last year that CEO Mark Zuckerberg could "spend the rest of his life in prison." After the election, Zuckerberg visited him at Mar-a-Lago.
X MODEL Announcing that Meta would "get rid of fact checkers," Zuckerberg called the program "too politically biased." Facebook will now rely on a Community Notes model championed by Trump ally Elon Musk at X, in which unpaid users, rather than thir...