Meta Ends Fact-Checking, Prompting Fears of Misinformation [Video]

Less than two weeks before Donald Trump is reinstated as President, Meta is abandoning its fact-checking program in favor of a crowdsourced model that emphasizes “free expression.” The shift marks a profound change in how the company moderates content on its platforms—and has sparked fierce debate over its implications for misinformation and hate speech online.

Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram and Threads, had long funded fact-checking efforts to review content. But many Republicans chafed against those policies, arguing that they were disproportionately stifling right-wing thought. Last year, Trump threatened Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg that he could “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he attempted to interfere with the 2024 election. 

Since Trump’s electoral victory, Zuckerberg has tried to mend the relationship by donating $1 million (through Meta) to Trump’s inaugural fund and promoting longtime conservative Joel Kaplan to become Meta’s new global policy chief. This policy change …