Zuckerberg said in a video statement that he would eliminate fact checkers, introduce more political content, and end restrictions on topics far from mainstream discourse, stressing that he would “prioritize free speech.”
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Meta has signed contracts with fact-checking agencies around the world to respond to fake news flowing into the platform and provided a “third-party fact-checking program” that filters out false claims. Zuckerberg said that fact-checkers were too politically biased and that he would get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X. The community note is a feature created by X to respond to fake news and allows users to comment on content that is controversial.
Zuckerberg also said he would move the team’s office from the liberal-leaning state of California to Texas, where conservative taxes dominate, to eliminate concerns about the bias of the Meta content management team. He also said, “We will work with President Donald Trump to protest against governments around the world that are pushing for more censorship and kicking out American companies.”
Axios analyzed Meta’s change, saying, “It reflects the right’s demand to withdraw ‘censorship’ on social media and is in line with Trump’s return to the White House.” The Guardian said the announcement was one of a series of gestures Meta has taken on the right since Trump’s re-election, adding that Meta recently appointed pro-Republican executive Joel Kaplan as its global policy director and UFC leader Dana White, a close Trump ally, as a member of the board of directors.
Trump and his supporters have argued that social media is an excessive censorship of the right’s claims.
Asked if Zuckerberg’s sharp change in policy appeared to be due to pressure on him and the company, Trump replied, “Maybe so.”
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
