Meta is ending its fact-checking program

FIRST ON FOX: Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to “restore free expression” across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have “gone too far.” 

“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video posted Tuesday morning. “More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.” 

Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, will be on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” Tuesday morning for an exclusive interview to discuss the changes. 

Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to “manage content” and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to “political pressure,” executives said, but admitted the system has “gone too far.” 

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Mark Zuckerberg is shown at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Jan. 31, 2024. (Kent Nishimura)

“We went to independent, third-party fact-checkers,” Kaplan told Fox News Digital in an interview. “It has become clear there is too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check because, basically, they get to fact-check whatever they see on the platform.” 

Kaplan told Fox News Digital that Meta is “ending that completely” and will replace it with a “Community Notes” model similar to the one used on X, formerly Twitter.

“Instead of going to some so-called expert, it instead relies on the community and the people on the platform to provide their own commentary to something that they’ve read,” Kaplan explained, noting that if a note gets support from “the broadest cross-section of users,” that note can be attached to the content for others to see. 

“We think that’s a much better approach rather than relying on so-called experts who bring their own biases into the program,” Kaplan said.

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Kaplan also told Fox News Digital that Meta is changing some of its own content moderation rules, especially those that they feel are “too restrictive and not allowing enough discourse around sensitive topics like immigration, trans issues and gender.”

“We want to make sure that discourse can happen freely on the platform without fear of censorship,” Kaplan told Fox News Digital. “We have the power to change the rules and make them more supportive of free expression. And we’re not just changing the rules, we are actually changing how we enforce the rules.”

Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to “restore free expression” across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make “too many mistakes” and removes content “that doesn’t even violate our standards.”

He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation.

But as for the timing of the changes, Kaplan told Fox News Digital the company has “a real opportunity now.”

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“We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression,” Kaplan said, referring to the incoming Trump administration. “It gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on.”

(AP Photo/Michael Dwyer/File)

Last year, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee in which he admitted that he felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID content, and even items like satire and humor. 

“The thing is, as American companies, when other governments around the world that don’t have our tradition or our First Amendment, when they see the United States government pressuring U.S. companies to take down content, it is just open season then for those governments to put more pressure [on their companies],” Kaplan explained. “We do think it is a real opportunity to work with the Trump administration and to work on free expression at home.”

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Kaplan also said Meta sees “opportunities for partnership” with the Trump administration, not only on issues of free expression but also in “promoting American business and America’s technological edge.” 

“Those are issues of great importance to Meta and our sector,” Kaplan told Fox News Digital. “And we’re excited to work with the Trump administration to advance those goals.”

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Meanwhile, Meta also said it plans to take a more personalized approach to political content, so that users who want to see more posts of that kind can do so.

Meta said it will refocus its enforcement efforts to “illegal and high-severity violations.”