Zuckerberg scraps US fact-checks in Trump-friendly shift

In a controversial move, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has scrapped external fact-checking in the U.S., citing "political bias," and introduced policies critics say invite hate speech. The decision, announced via Fox News, is seen as an overture to Trump and his allies, signaling a stark shift in the social media giant's approach to content moderation. Advocacy groups warn the changes could make platforms unsafe for marginalized communities, while analysts question whether this is a calculated play for political favor as Meta faces antitrust battles and regulatory scrutiny..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here..By Kurt Wagner and Riley Griffin___STEADY_PAYWALL___.It was no accident that Meta Platforms Inc. chose Donald Trump's favorite TV news show, Fox and Friends, to discuss its decision to ditch outside fact-checking..The move, which will impact content served to hundreds of millions of US users on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, was in effect aimed at an audience of one. It was the latest calculation in a monthslong effort by founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg to reposition the social media giant as a more Trump-friendly organization after years of conflict and tension..In explaining the move, Zuckerberg said Meta's external fact checkers "have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US." His newly appointed policy chief, Joel Kaplan, a former staffer to President George W. Bush with deep ties to the Republican party, went on Fox and Friends to articulate similar arguments about freeing more speech on Meta's online platforms..Mark Zuckerberg.It's a stark reversal from previous policies, which have included banning Trump from Facebook after the Jan. 6, 2021 US Capitol riot. On the campaign trail last year, Trump called Facebook the "Enemy of the People" and threatened to imprison Zuckerberg for alleged election interference. Since then, Zuckerberg has sought to forge a relationship with the president-elect and his top allies, praising Trump publicly, donating $1 million to his inaugural fund and appointing a key supporter to Meta's board..The latest step may have the most far-reaching impact on his own internet empire: eliminating the quality controls and fact-checking systems that Trump always hated, doing so only within the US for now.."This was a political move, not a policy move," said Alexios Mantzarlis, director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech and formerly the founding director of the International Fact-Checking Network. He criticized Zuckerberg, who has previously celebrated Meta's fact-checking program, for misrepresenting the work and ignoring research demonstrating its benefits.."The winds have changed," Mantzarlis said. "And so has Zuckerberg.".Meta representatives declined to comment for this story..Read more: Rasool's appointment as US Ambassador raises red flags over Islamist ties – Nicholas Woode-Smith.The effort from Zuckerberg and Meta to better align with the incoming administration has come in several forms. Shortly after lauding Trump's reaction to an attempted assassination as "badass," Zuckerberg called Trump on the phone to personally apologize for an errant fact check label that was appended to a photo of the former president. After the election, the two had dinner at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on the night before Thanksgiving..Over the summer, Zuckerberg also accused the Biden administration of pressuring his company into taking down posts and suppressing opinions about Covid, echoing a recurring complaint that Trump has voiced about social media companies for years. This week, Meta appointed Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White to its board of directors, adding one of the people Trump celebrated his election-night victory with..Zuckerberg is far from the only major tech chief to have signaled support for Trump. Elon Musk was at Trump's side on election day, after hosting rallies in support of the Republican candidate during the campaign. He's sat in on meetings with CEOs of other major companies and has led policy debates about what Trump should do before he's even taken office..Elon Musk.Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos quashed his Washington Post's planned endorsement for Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, while Amazon has also donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund and has reportedly agreed to pay $40 million to license a documentary on Melania Trump. Nvidia Corp.'s Jensen Huang just told Bloomberg News that he expected Trump to bring less regulation and welcomed his business-friendly approach. ."I think that's a good thing," Huang said. "As an industry, we want to move fast.".It's unclear whether Zuckerberg's new positioning is reflective of a change in his own personal beliefs or if he's making a calculated business move. But the Meta CEO has clear incentives to play nice with the incoming administration. During his first term, Trump threatened to veto an important US defense spending bill unless Congress abolished a law known as Section 230, which forms the legal shield that social media platforms like Meta use to protect themselves from most content-related legal challenges..Meta is also facing a major antitrust trial later this year; The Federal Trade Commission is trying to break the company up and force Meta to spin off some of its most valuable products, including Instagram and WhatsApp. A friendly relationship with Trump could help stave off some of Meta's most dangerous challenges.."A lot of the future of this company, from AI to how it can operate, is very much gonna be influenced by decisions that the Trump administration makes — and so they're trying to adapt to that," said Katie Harbath, founder and CEO of Washington-based tech policy firm Anchor Change, who previously served as a public policy director for Facebook..Harbath said Zuckerberg always tries to adapt to a new administration — Trump, Biden or otherwise — and his team uses elections to take stock of "where society is, to readjust how they're approaching content" and keeping in mind "who the regulator is going to be.".US president-elect Donald Trump, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, France, on Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. There's still more than a month until inauguration day, but Donald Trump isn't waiting: he makes his first trip abroad since November's election, heading to Paris for the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg.Tuesday's fact-checking update was perhaps the most symbolic of Zuckerberg's changes given how clearly it addresses Trump's greatest frustration with social networks, which is that they are too heavy-handed when it comes to policing content. In his video to explain the move, Zuckerberg used language often associated with Trump to outline the update, blaming "governments and legacy media" for pushing to "censor more and more.".Instead, Zuckerberg said that Meta would adopt a new "community notes" product, noting it would be similar to Musk's X, which lets regular users weigh in and vote on the accuracy of posts on the service. "The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech," Zuckerberg added. .To many, Zuckerberg's announcement sounded a lot like Musk, who has become one of Trump's closest advisers. Zuckerberg even announced that Meta would move its trust and safety and moderation teams out of California to "help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content." Musk had earlier moved X's headquarters out of California, arguing that it was driven by his belief that San Francisco was too left-leaning. .Read more: Magnus Heystek – Onshore v Offshore in the past decade. No contest.."Frankly, I am shocked at the way Zuckerberg chose to do it," Mantzarlis said. "He took a very aggressive approach and used language that, ironically, was extremely politically charged," including casting fact-checking as a form of censorship. Meta's fact-checking labels don't lead to the removal of content, but rather provide context that debunks false information and reduces its reach, explained Mantzarlis, who helped craft the fact-checking principles that the company previously supported. ."He was basically cosplaying like Elon Musk and promising free expression for all," Mantzarlis said. .On Tuesday, Meta also updated its policies on hateful conduct. These changes, issued more quietly, included new provisions allowing its users to at times wield insulting language "when discussing transgender rights, immigration or homosexuality" as well as to argue for gender or sexual orientation-based limitations on military, law enforcement and teaching jobs. The new policy also removed protections against language that describes women as "household objects or property" as well as dehumanizing language focused on Black, transgender and non-binary people.."It's not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms," Kaplan said in a blog post. The topics Meta lifted restrictions on were among the "mainstream discourse," he said..Trump and Musk have both helped take such rhetoric, particularly around immigrants and transgender people, to the mainstream. Their comments, at times false or in violation of Meta's prior hateful conduct policies, have fanned online engagement and outrage..Sarah Kate Ellis, the president of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer media advocacy organization GLAAD, said in a statement that the removal of the fact-checking programs and policies surrounding hate speech will make Meta's platforms unsafe for both users and advertisers. ."Meta is giving the green light for people to target LGBTQ people, women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups with violence, vitriol and dehumanizing narratives," she said..Read also.Biden's rejection of Nippon steel deal strains US-Japan relationsFT: Javier Milei's next economic mission: affordable air fryersO'Sullivan goes after "corrupt" cop appointments.© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Zuckerberg scraps US fact-checks in Trump-friendly shift

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