In 2022, Elon Musk has taken over Twitter It made a series of changes to the platform, including changing its name to X and introducing community feedback, a feature that allows users to add context or fact-check posts that may be misleading.
This approach differs from the meta model, which relies on independent, third-party fact-checking organizations to flag misleading posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads (X's competitor).
but, CEO Mark Zuckerberg It recently announced that Meta will stop working with these organizations and will instead implement its X-like Community Notes feature. Zuckerberg also revealed a series of other major changes to the company's moderation policies and practices, aimed at giving people more freedom of expression.
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Community Feedback is coming to Meta platforms
Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that the social media company will stop working with third-party fact-checking organizations. In the video Posting on Instagram and Facebook, Zuckerberg said the company's content moderation approach often led to “censorship.”
“After Trump was first elected in 2016, legacy media wrote nonstop about how disinformation poses a threat to democracy,” Zuckerberg said. “We tried in good faith to address these concerns without becoming arbiters of truth.” “But the fact-checkers were too politically biased and destroyed more trust than they created, especially in the United States.”
Zuckerberg said so Meta will terminate its fact-checking program With trusted partners and replacing it with a community-based system similar to X's Community Notes system.
For the unaware, Community Notes on When a Tweet is flagged as misleading or lacking context, users can submit feedback that provides additional information or corrects errors.
This feedback is then reviewed by other users, who can upvote or downvote contributions based on their usefulness and accuracy. If a note receives enough support, it becomes visible below the original Tweet, providing balanced exposure and helping to inform others.
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Meta changes spark backlash from the fact-checking community
However, independent fact-checkers are not happy with this change.
“Fact-checking journalism has never censored or removed posts; it has added information and context to controversial claims, and has debunked deceptive content and conspiracy theories. The fact-checkers employed by Meta follow a set of principles that require impartiality and transparency.” He said Angie Drobnik-Holan, Director of the International Fact-Checking Network.
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Meta also reduces censorship
Zuckerberg also revealed plans to overhaul Meta's recommendation system, which determines the content shown to users. For years, the company has restricted political content, citing user comments and concerns about social media's influence on beliefs.
“We've built a lot of complex systems to police content, but the problem with complex systems is that they make mistakes,” Zuckerberg said. “Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people, and we've reached a point where there are too many errors and too much censorship.”
He added that Meta would remove some content policies related to controversial issues, including immigration and gender, and refocus automated moderation on what he described as high-risk violations. The company will now take a more personalized approach to political content so that people who want to see more of it in their feeds can see it.
Additionally, Facebook will move its trust, safety, and content moderation teams from California to Texas. Zuckerberg also said that Meta would collaborate with the incoming Trump administration to promote freedom of expression globally, though he did not provide specific details.
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Key takeaway for Kurt
Meta platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have been more tightly moderated than platforms like X, which means less freedom of expression for users. The changes Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday aim to relax these rules, allowing people to share their thoughts more freely. This may lead to more offensive content, but that's the trade-off for more freedom. Offering community feedback is a good change, too, because it gives users more control rather than leaving it up to a small group of people who may be biased toward a particular political party or issue.
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