Meta is replacing its fact-checking systems on Facebook and Instagram with a “community notes” model similar to Elon Musk’s X, Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday.
In a video message posted on the platforms, Zuckerberg said, “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram.” He cited “widespread debate” over potential harm from online content, and said that “governments and legacy media” have pushed for greater censorship on social media.
As a result, Zuckerberg said Meta will no longer rely on its complex fact-checking system, saying that it’s led to “too many mistakes and too much censorship” and is “too politically biased.”
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point toward once again prioritizing speech. So we’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” he said.
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Zuckerberg said that first, Meta will “get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X, starting in the U.S.”
“After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy,” he continued. “We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the U.S.”
Meta will also simplify its content policies around topics like immigration and gender, Zuckerberg said, and focus its filters on high severity violations. “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far,” he said.
This will include bringing back what Zuckerberg called “civic content” to Meta’s platforms. “For a while, the community asked to see less politics because it was making people stressed, so we stopped recommending these posts,” he explained. “But it feels like we’re in a new era now.”
Meta’s trust and safety and content moderation teams will also be moved from California to Texas, mirroring Musk’s similar move with X’s headquarters. “I think that it will help us build trust to do this work in places where there’s less concern about the bias of our teams,” he said.
The changes come after Zuckerberg met with President-elect Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in November. Meta then donated $1 million to his inaugural fund alongside other tech giants like Amazon and, most recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” Zuckerberg concluded, adding that over “the past four years” it’s been difficult to do so when “even the U.S. government has pushed for censorship.”
Watch Zuckerberg’s full message here.