Meta To Ditch Fact-checkers On Its Platforms Citing Biasness

Meta has announced that it’s going to do away with fact checkers in its platforms and adopt Elon Musk’s style of letting users decide/comment on the accuracy of posts, videos and other content shared in the platform.

In a video message, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that fact-checkers in his platforms have been politically biased, hence destroying trust among users. He further noted that his platforms had increasingly been used to shut down opinions and other people’s ideas.

“Fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created,” Zuckerberg said adding that “what started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas and it has gone too far.”

Meta decision appears to be imitating Elon Musk’s X’s where fact checkers were replaced with user-generated community notes. This means a wider range of content and opinions from different users will not be removed in the platforms.

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Meta, which owns Instagram, Facebook, Threads and WhatsApp has been extensively censoring posts, videos and other content in its platforms. The fact-checking program was introduced in 2016 to reduce misinformation after the allegations that its platform was used to spread fake news during 2016 presidential elections.

Phasing out of the fact-checking program came at the time when Zuckerberg and other tech companies seek to build a good relationship with U.S President-elect Donal Trump, who in the past has criticized Meta for silencing and censoring Republican and other right wing voices.