Fake news is on the way to expanding: the company Meta, which owns the Facebook and Instagram platforms, announces a revolutionary change in its content filtering policy, when it decides to cancel the fact-checking mechanism and replace it with a “surfer comments” mechanism, similar to the model of Elon Musk on the X network (formerly Twitter).
The dramatic announcement, made by Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg represents a significant change of direction in the fight against false information on social networks. Zuckerberg claimed that the current fact-checking mechanism was “too politically biased” and did more harm than good. “What started as a movement to increase inclusion has become a tool to silence and suppress dissent, and it’s gone too far,” Zuckerberg said in the announcement video.
The change comes just days before the president-elect takes office, Donald Trump and in the shadow of sharp criticism from conservative elements about Meta’s policy in the past, which they described as political censorship. The company even announced that it would donate a million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund, and that Zuckerberg is interested in playing an active role in technology policy discussions with the new administration.
Joel Kaplandirector of Meta’s new policy area and a Trump ally, admitted that the decision was related to the political changes in the United States. According to him, “We are in a new era with a new administration, which supports freedom of expression. This is a significant change compared to the last four years, when we were pressured to tighten the content policy.”
Meta intends to adopt a mechanism similar to the “Community Notes” launched on Twitter, where users will be able to add contexts to content on social networks. The mechanism, which will start operating first in the United States, is expected to replace Meta’s collaborations with independent fact-checking bodies.
At the same time, Meta will reduce the activity of its automatic systems for detecting content violations. According to Zuckerberg, “These systems caused too much content to be downloaded that did not violate our policies.” Instead, the focus will be on identifying serious offenses only, such as terrorism, child exploitation, fraud and drugs. Oversight organizations, such as the “Facebook Independent Commission” condemned the change. They claimed that this is a step that endangers the credibility of the platforms and serves as “politics for its own sake”.
The Israeli Internet Association reacted sharply to the move. VP of Community at the Israel Internet Association, Ring era, And a bud will stirdirector of disinformation at the Internet Association, said: “The dramatic decision by Meta to abandon the important cooperation with professional fact-checking bodies is very disturbing and endangers the safety of information and the users of Meta’s platforms around the world and in Israel. In light of past experience, there is concern that this move actually constitutes a complete rejection of Meta from responsibility for the safety and reliability of the content distributed on the platform and throws it exclusively into the hands of the users without giving them tools real to do so.”
They also added that “instead of insisting on safety and reliability, Meta may become a pale shadow of X. The X network under Musk has become a more extreme, violent and inciting place – and much less safe for users. The fear now is that the announcement of the change in the safety policy on Facebook and Instagram – which is popular in the world Much more than X – will also turn them into less safe and less reliable environments and a fertile ground for spreading disinformation and offensive content which will shock many democratic countries.”