The Associated Press (AP) recently reported that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is discontinuing its third-party fact-checking program in favor of a new Community Notes initiative. This shift aligns with similar practices seen on Elon Musk's social media platform, X.

Beginning in the United States, the tech giant will abandon its existing fact-checking framework, which it claims suffered from biases among independent experts. Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer, Joel Kaplan, stated, “We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context” (AP News).

The company is also lifting some restrictions around topics that are part of mainstream discourse, with a focus on addressing only “high severity violations” such as terrorism, drug trafficking, and child exploitation. Meta has acknowledged that its previous systems for managing content had “gone too far,” leading to excessive censorship.

In his remarks, CEO Mark Zuckerberg indicated that the changes were influenced by recent political events, particularly the cultural reactions following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory. He noted, “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech” (Los Angeles Times).

Overall, these adjustments are seen as part of Meta's broader attempt to recalibrate its approach to content moderation, allowing for greater community involvement in the verification process.