SOMEONE ELSE’S WINDOWS: Trumping Meta
MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 11 January) – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has decided to scrap fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. He will now rely on “community notes” by volunteers, interestingly, a system used by X (formerly Twitter), a social media platform run by Elon Musk, a Trump adviser.
The shift in policy mirrors the reemerging dominance of conservative politics in the United States with the reelection of Donald Trump. The incoming American president had threatened to send Zuckerberg to jail for “the rest of his life” if he interfered in the elections.
Thus, Meta’s latest move to loosen up restrictions on content, disguised as “getting back to our roots” on free speech, is nothing more than an effort to curry favor from the returning White House occupant.
Meta didn’t mention that fact-checkers only explain, based on evidence obtained through the rigors of research and forensics, why certain social media posts misinform, deceive or mislead users and readers. They don’t ask, much less demand, that these items be taken down.
In addition, fact-checkers don’t rate opinions, as doing so interferes in the right to freedom of expression, except in cases where false information is being masked as opinion to escape scrutiny.
While Meta’s new policy is mainly a response to the implications of Trump’s victory, it will have grave repercussions on events in other countries as well. Imagine the impact of social media being flooded with disinformation, misinformation and malinformation that will no longer be subject to verification and refutation.
This is particularly disturbing during elections and in relation to issues of utmost significance; the public will form opinions and make decisions based on lies, half-truths, and facts that lack context. Only rent-seeking trolls, creators of manipulated content, and “influencers” and their clients will benefit from Meta’s act of survival.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. H. Marcos C. Mordeno can be reached at boymords@mindanews.com.)
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