With Less Than Two Weeks Before Trump Takes Office, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg Announces Changes to Content Moderation Practices
Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, has announced a series of changes to the company’s content moderation practices on Facebook and Instagram, just days before Donald Trump takes office. The changes come after a meeting between Zuckerberg and Trump, and as Trump’s allies have targeted the platform and Zuckerberg himself.
The changes include the end of fact-checking and other restrictions, as well as a shift towards a more comprehensive community note system, similar to one deployed by Elon Musk on Twitter. Zuckerberg also announced plans to base the U.S. content review teams in Texas, rather than California, where there is less concern about bias in the teams.
Zuckerberg framed the changes as a return to the company’s roots, prioritizing free speech and reducing mistakes. He also said that Meta would work with the Trump administration to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.
Trump’s incoming FCC chair, Brendan Carr, has long railed against content moderation practices that he sees as targeting conservative voices, and has signaled that the agency would pursue policies that would impose restrictions on how political-oriented content is moderated.
Zuckerberg’s announcement was met with criticism from public interest groups, including Accountable Tech, which called the changes “preemptive capitulation” and “calculated” to prioritize engagement and drive business revenue.