By Hannah Parry
Associate News Editor
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Mark Zuckerberg has announced that Facebook and Instagram will roll back its fact-checking program less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The Meta CEO said that the fact-checkers "have just been too politically biased, and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S.
"The recent elections feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech," he told Fox & Friends on Tuesday.
Zuckerberg said that the social network would "get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms."
The fact-checkers will be replaced with a community notes system similar to the one used by Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter. Meta platforms, which include Facebook and Instagram, will also no longer apply restrictions on politically sensitive topics, such as immigration and gender, describing the regulations as "out of touch with mainstream discourse."
"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. "So I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms."
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Jan 07, 2025 at 04:01 PM EST
Facebook embraces Donald Trump
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Meta's Mark Zuckerberg announced major changes to the company's policies on Tuesday, in the latest sign of its embrace of President-elect Donald Trump.
In a video posted on Facebook, Zuckerberg said the election felt like a "cultural tipping point" as he announced Meta would end its fact-checking program and replace it with a community-driven model like that seen on Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter), as well as lift restrictions on certain topics such as immigration and gender identity.
"There's a real opportunity here, with President Trump coming into office, with his commitment to free expression, for us to get back to those values and really provide space for people to have the discourse and debate they want to have," Joel Kaplan, a Republican who was recently appointed Meta's chief global affairs officer, said Tuesday on Fox & Friends.
Read in full from Khaleda Rahman on Newsweek.
Jan 07, 2025 at 03:50 PM EST
Another watchdog says Meta decision is ‘gift to Trump’
Nicole Gill, executive director of Accountable Tech, called Meta's decision "a gift to Donald Trump and extremists around the world."
In a statement, released today, she warned that Meta was inviting "the exact same surge of hate, disinformation and conspiracy theories" that fueled the Jan. 6 attack.
Jan 07, 2025 at 03:20 PM EST
Laura Loomer shifts focus from Musk to Zuckerberg in latest tweet
After spending weeks targeting Elon Musk, conspiracy theorist and MAGA media personality Laura Loomer has now directed her ire at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
Loomer, who recently lost her blue check mark on Musk's platform X, has been vocal in her criticisms, accusing the tech billionaire of censorship and bias. On Tuesday, however, she pivoted her attention to Zuckerberg, fueling her ongoing feud with Big Tech leaders.
"Stop groveling to tech billionaires," wrote Loomer on X. "Zuckerberg hasn't provided any evidence at all that he has changed. Every Trump supporter who was banned is still banned. I'm still banned on Facebook and Instagram and they never apologized to me for banning my CONGRESSIONAL CAMPAIGN from having social media."
Jan 07, 2025 at 02:50 PM EST
Nicole Shanahan questions timing of Meta move
Nicole Shanahan, a prominent MAGA media figure and former running mate of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called Zuckerberg's timing "interesting," fueling speculation about its motives.
Jan 07, 2025 at 02:36 PM EST
How Mark Zuckerberg, once a Trump foe, changed his tune on president-elect
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Zuckerberg's announcement Tuesday that Facebook and Instagram will no longer use fact-checkers comes after he has softened on President-elect Donald Trump in recent months.
The Meta CEO pointed to the 2024 election and Trump's defeat of Vice President Kamala Harris as a "cultural tipping point to once again prioritizing speech."
"After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. 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," he said.
Zuckerberg added that he will move the content moderation team from California, with content review to be based in Texas. He added that he believes having these workers based in a place where "there is less concern about the bias of our teams" will help the company "build trust."
He also said he plans to work with Trump to push back against governments that are "going after American companies" and promoting censorship. He also raised concerns about the U.S. government allegedly pushing censorship "over the past four years."
Zuckerberg softened tone on Trump sounds much different from his comments in the past, when he frequently criticized him. Zuckerberg drew Trump's ire after Meta removed the president's Facebook account after the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, when Trump supporters violently protested the 2020 election results.
Read in full from Andrew Stanton on Newsweek.
Jan 07, 2025 at 02:13 PM EST
Inside Trump and Zuckerberg’s tense relationship
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Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg have historically had a tense relationship, with the Meta CEO once banning Trump from his platforms, while the president-elect has threatened to imprison Zuckerberg once he returned to office.
Trump's vitriol toward Zuckerberg first really ratcheted up after Facebook banned him in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In July 2021, Trump sued Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—as well as the three companies' CEOs—alleging that they had engaged in "censorship" by banning his account after the Capitol riot.
In March, 2024, Trump weighed in on legislative efforts to ban TikTok in the U.S., saying that they would work out in Zuckerberg's favor.
Trump has also accused Zuckerberg of personally conspiring against him during the 2020 election and repeatedly threatened to jail him.
Zuckerberg "would come to the Oval Office to see me," Trump wrote in his book Save America, which was released in September. "He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT."
Trump was referring to a $419 million donation Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, made to two nonprofits that issued grants to election offices across the country to help fund election infrastructure.
The president-elect went on to threaten to imprison Zuckerberg, writing: "He told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me. We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election."
In July last year, Trump referred to Zuckerberg as "Zuckerbucks," writing on his social media platform that "if I'm elected President, we will pursue Election Fraudsters at levels never seen before, and they will be sent to prison for long periods of time. We already know who you are. DON'T DO IT! ZUCKERBUCKS, be careful!"
Two months later, Trump claimed that Zuckerberg reached out to him following the first assassination attempt against Trump in July.
"Mark Zuckerberg called up and said, 'I've never supported a Republican before, but there's no way I can vote for a Democrat in this election,'" Trump told New York Magazine in a wide-ranging interview in September. "He's a guy that, his parents, everybody was always Democrat. He said, 'I will never vote for the people running against you after watching what you did.'"
Asked about Trump's claim, a Meta spokesperson said at the time that "as Mark has said publicly, he's not endorsing anybody in this race and has not communicated to anybody how he intends to vote."
Zuckerberg did, however, publicly praise Trump for raising his fist after the assassination attempt, calling it "one of the most badass things I've ever seen in my life."
"At some level as an American, it's hard to not, like, get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight," Zuckerberg told Bloomberg in a July 24 interview. "And I think that's why a lot of people like the guy."
The Meta CEO joined a slew of other business and tech moguls in congratulating Trump after he won the 2024 U.S. election.
"Congratulations to President Trump on a decisive victory. We have great opportunities ahead of us as a country," Zuckerberg wrote on Threads. "Looking forward to working with you and your administration."
In November, 2024, Zuckerberg and Trump reportedly met at Mar-a-Lago as it appears Zuckerberg continues his efforts to patch up his relationship with Trump, ahead of his inauguration.
Jan 07, 2025 at 02:01 PM EST
Trump takes credit for Meta announcement
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President-elect Donald Trump has taken credit for Meta ending its fact-checking program today.
At an unrelated press conference, at his Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida, Trump said that he believed the change was "probably" due to threats that he has made against Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
However, he did say that the company had "come a long way" and praised Joel Kaplan, Meta's new global affairs chief, for his "impressive" interview on Fox.
Jan 07, 2025 at 01:48 PM EST
Meta ‘has gone full MAGA’, warns watchdog
The Real Facebook Oversight Board, a self-appointed, independent watchdog group made up of journalists, civil rights activists and an early Facebook investor, has slammed Meta's decision to end fact checking.
In a statement today, the group, whose name is a play on Facebook's own oversight committee, said, "Meta's announcement today is a retreat from any sane and safe approach to content moderation.
The board added that it was now a "race to the bottom' for social media companies after X's, formerly known as Twitter, decision to remove its fact checkers had turned it into a "cesspool."
"Mark Zuckerberg is right: this is a cultural tipping point indeed, as Meta has now gone full MAGA," the board said.
Jan 07, 2025 at 01:32 PM EST
FCC chair nominee reacts to Meta news
Brendan Carr, who Trump has tapped to become the next Federal Communications Commission chair, has responded to news Meta is ending its fact-checking program.
Carr, the current top Republican on the FCC and a Project 2025 author, has vowed to dismantle the "censorship cartel" from big tech companies such as Google and Apple after Trump takes office.
Today, he responded to a post about Meta changing its censorship policy on X, with a GIF of a grinning Jack Nicholson nodding in agreement.
Jan 07, 2025 at 01:18 PM EST
Nonprofit blasts Meta for ‘lowering the bar’ on combatting hate speech and harassment online
CyberWell, an independent nonprofit focused on combatting online antisemitism, has accused Meta of lowering the bar on combatting hate speech and harassment online.
Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, CyberWell's founder, told Newsweek, he was "deeply concerned" about safety practices at the social media sites, especially during a historic rise in antisemitism.
"Meta's recent announcement is not just about the rollout of Community Notes, following their fellow platforms X and YouTube – it is a systematic lowering of the bar on how Meta intends to enforce their Community Standards against hate speech and harassment online.
"Given the mounting evidence of how hate speech, incendiary content and harassment lead to real-world harm including hate crimes, terror attacks and child suicide, CyberWell is deeply concerned at the purposeful deterioration of Trust & Safety best practices at Meta."
Jan 07, 2025 at 01:07 PM EST
Meta reportedly told Trump’s team before announcing fact-checking changes
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, told Donald Trump's transition team they were planning to ax their fact-checkers ahead of today's announcement, CNN reports.
Jan 07, 2025 at 12:53 PM EST
Dana White says he’s ‘excited to be a small part of the future’
Dana White said he is "excited to be a small part of the future" after he was appointed to the board of directors of Meta, alongside auto tycoon John Elkann and tech investor Charlie Songhurst.
White is the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a figure close to incoming President Donald Trump.
The move could be seen as an attempt by Zuckerberg to improve ties with Trump, who was once banned from Facebook.
In a post on X today, White said, "I love social media. And I'm excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies @Meta."
Jan 07, 2025 at 12:41 PM EST
Meta Chief of Global Affairs Joel Kaplan said fact checkers had been ‘politically biased’
Meta's newly appointed Chief of Global Affairs Joel Kaplan welcomed today's announcement, after claiming that the fact- checkers had been too politically biased.
He said Tuesday, during an appearance on Fox and Friends, that the third-party fact checkers were "well intentioned at the outset but there's just been too much political bias in what they choose to fact check and how."
Jan 07, 2025 at 12:29 PM EST
Meta adds Dana White to board, strengthening Trump ties
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Dana White has been appointed to the board of directors of Meta, alongside auto tycoon John Elkann and tech investor Charlie Songhurst, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post late Monday.
The social media company owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
White is the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a figure close to incoming President Donald Trump.
The move could be seen as an attempt by Zuckerberg to improve ties with Trump, who was once banned from Facebook.
Read in full from Lilith Foster-Collins on Newsweek.
Jan 07, 2025 at 12:13 PM EST
Piers Morgan congratulates Zuckerberg on ‘U-turn on all woke censorship’
Piers Morgan has congratulated Mark Zuckerberg on a "complete U-turn on all woke censorship" after the Meta CEO announced he was axing fact-checkers at Facebook and Instagram.
The British broadcaster and former tabloid newspaper editor posted on X today, "Wow... this is amazing...Mark Zuckerberg announcing a complete U-turn on all woke censorship & cancel culture bullsh*t.. good for you@finkd and good for@elonmusk who has led the charge on free speech."
Jan 07, 2025 at 12:04 PM EST
Moves comes days after announcing prominent Republican as president of global affairs
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Today's announcement comes days after Facebook announced the prominent Republican Joel Kaplan as its new president of global affairs earlier this month, replacing former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg.
Kaplan was the White House deputy chief of staff under President George W. Bush, and has pushed against restrictions on politically sensitive content.
Announcing his decision to stand down, Clegg wrote: "As a new year begins, I have come to the view that this is the right time for me to move on from my role as President, Global Affairs at Meta.
"Joel is quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time - ideally placed to shape the company's strategy as societal and political expectations around technology continue to evolve."
The replacement of Clegg with a staunch conservative signals the company's efforts to align itself more closely with the incoming Trump administration and to mend strained relations.
Jan 07, 2025 at 11:52 AM EST
Musk praises decision to end fact-checking at Meta
Elon Musk has praised Mark Zuckerberg's decision to end fact-checking at Meta.
The Tesla and X CEO shared an article about Zuckerberg's decision, posting, "This is cool."
X, formerly known as Twitter, got rid of fact-checkers several years ago and removed fact-checking labels, once applied to misleading posts about issues such as Covid-19.
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