A member of Meta’s oversight board is “very concerned” about the company’s decision to ditch fact-checkers.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg recently announced a series of changes designed to get the company “back to our roots around free expression” – but Helle Thorning-Schmidt has already voiced her concerns about the move.
She told BBC Radio 4’s ‘Today’ show: “We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully.”
Tech journalist Kara Swisher has also hit out at the changes, describing it as a “cynical” ploy by Zuckerberg and Meta, which owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.
She told the BBC: “Facebook does whatever is in its self-interest.”
Zuckerberg recently announced plans to scrap independent fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram, explaining that the current approach is “too politically biased”.
The billionaire businessman said in a statement: “We’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US…
“The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created – especially in the US.
“Over the next couple of months, we’re going to phase in a more comprehensive community notes system.”
Zuckerberg intends to work more closely with the US government in a bid to protect freedom of expression.
He explained: “The US has the strongest constitutional protections for free expression in the world.
“Europe has an ever-increasing number of laws institutionalizing censorship and making it difficult to build anything innovative there.
“Latin American countries have secret courts that can order companies to quietly take things down.
“China has censored our apps from even working in the country.
“The only way we can push back on this global trend is with the support of the US Government.”
