Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2018. Image: Anthony Quintano via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
Meta’s CEO made the remarks during an announcement where he said the company will replace fact checking with community notes on its platforms in the US.
The EU has rejected Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that Europe has “an ever-increasing number of laws institutionalising censorship” which make it “difficult to build anything innovative there”.
Zuckerberg made the remarks in a video announcement (7 January) about the fact-checking process at Meta. In the video, the billionaire entrepreneur revealed that the social media giant would do away with its current content moderation process for Facebook, Threads and Instagram, starting in the US, citing concerns about censorship and errors.
The move, which will take place over the next few months, will remove precautions previously provided by Meta, instead allowing users to write and rate community notes in a manner similar to the social media platform X.
Ireland’s media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, emphasised that the fact-checking move only applies to the US and “not to users within the European Union”.
Meta explained that it will get rid of its fact-checking control, stop demoting fact-checked content and instead display warnings that need to be clicked through before a debated post is viewed. However, according to the announcement, Meta will opt to use “much less obtrusive” labelling that indicates additional information.
In addition to removing third-party fact-checking, Meta, which previously tried cutting down political content on its platforms, said that it will undo these changes.
The changes at Meta have prompted debate across the tech industry and beyond, with the European Commission rejecting Zuckerberg’s claim that EU data laws censored social media and insisted that they only required large platforms to remove illegal content.
The Commission claimed its Digital Services Act (DSA) did not force or request platforms to remove lawful content but only to take down content that may be harmful, such as to children or to the EU’s democracies.
Commenting further on the EU’s stance, European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho told reporters in Brussels: “We absolutely refute any claims of censorship.”
The European Commission added that it continues to engage with Meta to ensure that it complies with the DSA.
‘Algorithms take people down the river of hate’
Concerns about the changes at Meta have been raised by the Hope and Courage Collective (HCC), an organisation which campaigns against hate speech.
The HCC called Zuckerberg’s statement “dangerous and disingenuous”.
“This is about global capital with a harmful business model trying to escape democratic control.
“Algorithms take people down the river of hate, leaving truth and compassion to catch up. Facebook removing fact-checking and allowing lies to spread unchallenged poses a direct threat to our communities.
“This move will limit the space where democratic ideals like freedom of expression, truth-telling and safety can exist online.”
Another critic of Meta’s decision is Eugen Rochko, the CEO of social media platform Mastodon.
Rochko referred to the changes as being “deeply troubling” and “a concern to anyone with a conscience”.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in 2018. Image: Anthony Quintano via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
