Zuckerberg imitates Musk and ends fact-checking at Meta

Meta Platforms co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg assured that he will put an end to his fact-checking program, launched in 2016, with the aim of "restoring free speech" on platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

Through a video, Zuckerberg announced that he will replace fact-checkers with a system similar to Community Notes from X, his main competitor in the social networking sector.

"It's time to get back to our roots around free expression. We're replacing fact checkers with Community Notes, simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes," the Meta Platforms CEO stressed.

Zuckerberg points fingers at governments and the media

In his announcement, Zuckerberg explained that his purpose was always to "protect freedom of speech." However, the tech mogul directly blamed governments and the media because that fundamental right has not been respected on Facebook or any of the group's other platforms.

"A lot has happened over the last several years. There has been widespread debate about potential harms from online content. Governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more," he emphasized, adding that such censorship harms millions of people around the world.

In addition, Zuckerberg spoke about the election and Donald Trump's victory, saying that the media worked to report on how "misinformation was a threat to democracy" and how they attributed that alleged lack of truthfulness in election-related news to social networking platforms.

"The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech. So we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," he said.

Regarding Trump, Zuckerberg reached out to him to "push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more." Those governments referred to by the Meta Platforms CEO in his announcement are European, Hispanic American and the communist regime in China.

Meta, heading to Texas

His appearance, which came hours after he was named the third richest person in the world in a report by Forbes and adding Dana White to Meta Platforms' board of directors, not only served to confirm the end of fact-checking for the platform. Zuckerberg also announced that he will move key company positions from California to Texas.

"We're going to move our Trust and Safety and Content Moderation teams out of California, our U.S.-based content review is going to be based in Texas. ... It will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams."

X celebrates the news

X's top management celebrated the decision. Linda Yaccarino, CEO of the corporation, described Community Notes as "profoundly successful".

"Fact-checking and moderation doesn't belong in the hands of a few select gatekeepers who can easily inject their bias into decisions," she added and encouraged other platforms to mimic "Zuck's" "smart decision."

More succinct, but equally celebratory, Elon Musk opined, "This is cool."