Meta returns to old practices, promises 'fact checkers' in Australia

"Fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S.," Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, said earlier this year. "It's time to get back to our roots around free expression." 

Zuckerberg promised then that he would replace verifiers with an X-like system called Community Notes, in which users themselves monitor content. The change, he said, would start in the United States. And it appears, at least for now, it will end there as well: the company announced in the last few hours that it would rely on fact-checkers for the Australian election.

The announcement comes at the same time as the new system begins to operate within U.S. borders. The head of public policy at Meta Australia, Cheryl Seeto, explained that they will turn to the agencies Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Australian Associated Press (AAP) to review content on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

"When content is debunked by these fact-checkers, we attach warning labels to the content and reduce its distribution," the company wrote in a recent post. For more "serious" content, such as that promoting "imminent violence" or that "attempts to interfere" with elections, they promised to directly remove it.

AFP and AAP will also be able to put the magnifying glass on content generated with artificial intelligence (A.I.), for which Seeto showed particular concern. The company will try to ensure that all content generated with A.I. has a "label," also imposed by the Meta team.

She also advanced that they will work with AAP on "a new media literacy campaign" to "help" voters weigh content.