Meta Ends Fact Checking on Social Media Platforms

Key Takeaways

• Meta plans to end third-party fact checking and move to a community notes-style model for content moderation.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg said fact-checkers have been too politically biased and "destroyed more trust than they’ve created.”
• The social media giant said it will work with the incoming Trump administration on pushing back on foreign governments attempting to censor free speech.

Meta Platforms (META) is ending third-party fact-checking programs on its platforms, starting in the U.S., a move CEO Mark Zuckerberg said is designed to restore free expression.

Facebook, Instagram and Threads will move to a community notes model, relying on contributing users to flag misinformation, Meta announced Tuesday. Elon Musk’s X platform operates on a similar model, Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, said.

In a video, Zuckerberg said fact checkers have become “too politically biased and destroyed more trust than they’ve created.”

As part of the changes, Meta will "get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse," Zuckerberg said.

Meta Will Work With Trump

Meta plans to work with the administration of President-elect Donald Trump to “push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” Zuckerberg said. “The only way that we can push back on this global trend is with the support of the U.S. government.”

Meanwhile, Meta is set to face trial in April as part of a U.S. government lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), according to reports. The agency sued the company in 2020, claiming it has maintained a social networking monopoly through its acquisitions of Instagram and Whatsapp. 

Last year, Zuckerberg said the Biden Administration pressured the company to censor content from its platforms in 2021.

Dana White Joins Meta’s Board

The policy shift comes a day after Meta announced that Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White would join the company’s board of directors. White has previously praised Trump and appeared at his Madison Square Garden rally in October, per reports.

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