Meta Shelves Fact-Checking Unit: Will It Hit Fight Against Fake News?
In a major policy shift, social media company Meta has dismantled its US fact-checking program and has also reduced curbs on discussions around contentious topics such as immigration and gender identity. The move comes as Zuckerberg and other tech companies are seeking to improve relations with US President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office later this month. Now this move is being seen as Meta's biggest overhaul of its approach to managing political content on its services in recent memory and comes as CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been signaling a desire to mend fences with the incoming administration. The new system, community notes will be phased in over the next several months and honed throughout 2025. How will this impact users, behaviour on social media? Is this smart policy, political appeasement or an attempt to bring in more perspectives, what happens to the checks on hate speech?
