Experts have warned Australians will be exposed to more abuse and trolling as Facebook and Instagram abandon specialized fact-checking services.
Meta announced Wednesday that it would eliminate its third-party fact-checking program, starting in the United States, over fears it would hinder free speech.
In a five-minute video message posted to Facebook, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, “We’re going back to our roots and focusing on reducing errors, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
“More specifically, we will get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with X-like community notes, starting in the US.”
Digital marketing agency founder Sabri Suby, who also appeared as an investor on Channel 10’s Shark Tank, said removing the muzzle would change the algorithm.
“We are all going to see different content,” he said.
‘This is a movement to make the Internet more aligned with what it was designed to do, which is to allow freedom of expression.
“And yes, there is certainly an unpleasant side that will certainly open up a lot of negativity, but that is also the world we live in. You can’t put barriers on the Internet.”
Australians will be exposed to more abuse, trolling and the internet’s underbelly as Facebook and Instagram abandon specialized fact-checking services, experts say. stock image
The change, made fifteen days after the return of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, to the White House, did not surprise news and political communication expert Emma Briant.
“With at least 13 billionaires in his new administration, including big tech oligarchs like Musk, Trump has sent a powerful message to America’s entire right-wing wealthy elite: Now is your time, not theirs,” the president said. associate professor at Monash University.
‘Clearly (Meta boss) Mark Zuckerberg heard it loud and clear. “Ordinary citizens should be very concerned.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned social media giants that they “have a social responsibility” to the Australian public.
The fact-checking program typically involves journalists from internationally accredited agencies investigating and reviewing claims on social media through rigorous questioning, consideration of evidence, and verification using multiple sources.
Posts deemed “fake” or “altered” have a verification article attached and may receive reduced distribution on the Meta, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads platforms.
Meta announced Wednesday that it would eliminate its third-party fact-checking program, starting in the United States, over fears it would hinder free speech. stock image
Recent federal research highlighted that more Australians were concerned about misinformation and disinformation than the global average.
Nearly half of all Australian young adults, and 20 per cent across all age groups, use social media as their main source of news, according to a 2024 report from the federal media authority.
“Mr Zuckerberg’s decision is aimed at maximizing Meta’s profits at the expense of community safety and human decency,” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told ABC radio on Wednesday.
‘It has nothing to do with freedom of expression and everything to do with maximum profits by creating outrage, anger, abuse (and) supercharging that with secret algorithms that generate maximum profit through their advertising business model.
“It’s dangerous, it will be detrimental to democracy and it will have ramifications here in Australia.”
Australian Associated Press said its fact-checking agency AAP FactCheck’s contract with Meta was not affected by the US decision and its work would continue in 2025.
“Independent fact-checkers are a vital safeguard against the spread of harmful misinformation that threatens to undermine free democratic debate in Australia and seeks to manipulate public opinion,” said chief executive Lisa Davies.
Meta said he decided to end the program because the expert fact-checkers had their own biases and ended up fact-checking too much content.
“A program intended to inform too often becomes a tool to censor,” he said.
“We think (community notes) could be a better way to achieve our original intention of giving people information about what they are seeing, and a way that is less prone to bias.”
The X boss welcomed Meta’s decision, saying the move “couldn’t be more valid” for his own decision to allow users to control content themselves.
CEO Linda Yaccarino’s remarks came despite studies criticizing X Corp’s fact-checking program, Community Notes, which researchers said allowed misinformation to spread without verification.
“Meta realized that it is the most effective, fastest and most unbiased fact-checking,” he said.
Zuckerberg threatened governments in Europe, South America and China that Meta would “work with President Trump to stand up to foreign governments going after American companies for further censorship.”
He claimed that foreign governments have been demanding that Facebook be censored or even taken down and that they will work with Trump to stop them.
Meta said it will move its trust and security teams from liberal California to more conservative Texas, mirroring Elon Musk’s recent relocations.
“That will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams,” Zuckerberg said.
The change came as the 40-year-old mogul has been making efforts to reconcile with Trump since his election in November, including donating $1 million to his inauguration fund.