Meta stops its fact-checking program in the United States

Meta, the company that owns major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced that it will stop its news verification program in the United States, which represents a major setback to the content moderation policy of its social networks, according to specialists.

The group’s president, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a post on social media: “We will replace workers in the fact-checking service with community feedback, as is the case on X, starting in the United States.”

He believed that “auditors are very politically oriented, and have contributed more to weakening confidence rather than strengthening it, especially in the United States.”

Meta’s announcement comes days before Republican Donald Trump is officially inaugurated as President of the United States on January 20. Republicans and the owner of rival network X, Elon Musk, have repeatedly complained about fact-checking programs, which they liken to censorship.

“The recent presidential elections marked a cultural turning point, as they once again gave priority to freedom of expression,” the Meta president noted.

On Tuesday, Musk was quick to comment on this development through his network account, describing it as a “good thing.”

Trump’s ally, the head of Tesla and SpaceX, accompanied his brief comment with a screenshot of an article titled “Facebook fires fact-checkers in an attempt to revive freedom of expression.” He added, “Mark Zuckerberg says that content moderators are politically biased, promising a system similar to System X.”

Zuckerberg explained that the group will at the same time work to reconsider and “simplify” its rules regarding content on all its platforms.