<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="http://9news.com.au/meta" rel="" target="" title="Meta"><span>Meta</span></a><span> will adjust its content review policies on </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/facebook" rel="" target="" title="Facebook"><span>Facebook</span></a><span> and </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/instagram" rel="" target="" title="Instagram"><span>Instagram</span></a><span>, getting rid of fact checkers and replacing them with user-generated "community notes", similar to </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/elon-musk" rel="" target="" title="Elon Musk"><span>Elon Musk</span></a><span>'s X, CEO </span><a href="http://9news.com.au/mark-zuckerberg" rel="" target="" title="Mark Zuckerberg"><span>Mark Zuckerberg</span></a><span> has announced.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The sweeping changes will significantly alter the way that posts, videos and other content are moderated online.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The changes come just before US President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office. Trump and other Republicans have lambasted Zuckerberg and Meta for what they view as censorship of right-wing voices.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/western-australia-esperance-drowning-olya-tikhanova/3f4b2e05-d5b2-4f15-84e9-5fcb004709d6"><strong><span>Mum who fled Ukraine for new life in Australia dies in beach tragedy</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created," Zuckerberg said in a </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1525382954801931" rel="" target="_blank" title=""><span>video announcing the new policy</span></a><span> on Tuesday.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it's gone too far."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zuckerberg, however, acknowledged a "tradeoff" in the new policy, noting more harmful content will appear on the platform as a result of the content moderation changes.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/facebook-instagram-meta-getting-rid-of-fact-checkers-mark-zuckerberg-acknowledges-more-harmful-content-will-appear/b4f55c89-ec65-46c0-a511-33d519a65a51" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Meta's newly appointed chief of global affairs, Joel Kaplan, told Fox on Tuesday that Meta's partnerships with third-party fact checkers were "well intentioned at the outset but there's just been too much political bias in what they choose to fact check and how".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The announcement comes amid a broader apparent ideological shift to the right within Meta's top ranks, and as Zuckerberg seeks to improve his relationship with Trump before the president-elect takes office later this month.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Just one day earlier, Meta announced Trump ally and UFC CEO Dana White would join its board, along with two other new directors. Meta has also said it will donate $US1 million ($1.6 million) to Trump's inaugural fund, and that Zuckerberg wants to take an "active role" in tech policy discussions.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Kaplan, a prominent Republican who </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/02/tech/meta-nick-clegg-stepping-down-joel-kaplan/index.html"><span>was elevated</span></a><span> to the company's top policy job last week, acknowledged that the Tuesday announcement is directly related to the changing administration.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/rottnest-island-search-underway-after-sea-plane-crashes/008fd6be-04ec-4876-a080-dc7fae750deb"><strong><span>'Deeply concerning' scenes as sea plane crashes</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>He said that there's "no question that there has been a change over the last four years.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We saw a lot of societal and political pressure, all in the direction of more content, moderation more censorship, and we've got a real opportunity," he said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Now, we've got a new administration, and a new president coming in who are big defenders of free expression, and that makes a difference."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Meta gave Trump's team an advanced heads up that the moderation policy change was coming, a source familiar with the conversation told CNN.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The Real Facebook Oversight Board — an outside accountability organisation, whose name is a play on the company's official group, comprised of academics, lawyers and civil rights advocates including early Facebook investor Roger McNamee — said the policy changes represent Meta going "full MAGA".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Meta's announcement today is a retreat from any sane and safe approach to content moderation," the group said in a statement, calling the changes "political pandering".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/temu-hoodie-recall-fire-risk/b1a89052-ad8b-4c53-8532-4023d5666588" rel="" target="" title=""><strong><span>'Skin just falling off': Girl horrifically burnt by jumper</span></strong></a></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><h3><span>A significant reversal</span></h3></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The moderation changes mark a stunning reversal in how Meta handles false and misleading claims on its platforms.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In 2016, the company launched an independent fact-checking program, in the wake of claims that it had failed to stop foreign actors from leveraging its platforms to spread disinformation and sow discord among Americans.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>In the years since, it continued to grapple with the spread of controversial content on its platform, such as misinformation about elections, anti-vaccination stories, violence and hate speech.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The company built up safety teams, introduced automated programs to filter out or reduce the visibility of false claims and instituted a sort of independent Supreme Court for tricky moderation decisions, known as the Oversight Board.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Although Meta's fact checking partners repeatedly said they checked claims from both the right and left, Trump supporters and other conservatives have long claimed that the system restricted their voices.</span></div></div><div class="styles__Wrapper-sc-2o34ro-0 cmwkBV"><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><a href="/content/2024/11/12/09/47/us-election-all-the-people-donald-trump-second-administration-in-photos"><img alt="Trump appointments" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 636px, (min-width: 768px) 396px, 100vw" src="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/6fYnOAOCCAa1y-o6y47tD-85DwY=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F3eb51c93-7e95-4073-9905-8869555ff026" srcset="https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/6fYnOAOCCAa1y-o6y47tD-85DwY=/396x223/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F3eb51c93-7e95-4073-9905-8869555ff026 396w, https://imageresizer.static9.net.au/MTksw4ThxnWYLjxCX4Haff2ARuM=/636x358/https%3A%2F%2Fprod.static9.net.au%2Ffs%2F3eb51c93-7e95-4073-9905-8869555ff026 636w"/></a></div><div class="styles__Column-sc-2o34ro-3 jJDKrX"><div class="styles__Headline-sc-2o34ro-4 hpbOlz">Trump announces flood of new appointments to Pentagon and DOGE </div><div class="styles__Button-sc-2o34ro-1 eBjlmW"><a class="styles__ButtonLink-sc-2o34ro-2 hqpklJ" href="/content/2024/11/12/09/47/us-election-all-the-people-donald-trump-second-administration-in-photos">View Gallery</a></div></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"Anything I put on there about our president is generally only on for a few minutes and then suddenly they're fact checking me saying this that and the other thing, which I know is not true. Their fact checker's wrong," one Trump supporter told CNN at a rally in 2020.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But now, Zuckerberg is following in the footsteps of fellow social media leader Musk who, after acquiring X, then known as Twitter, in 2022, dismantled the company's fact-checking teams and made user-generated context labels called community notes the platform's only method of correcting false claims.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Starting in the US, Meta says it is ending its partnership with third-party fact checkers and instituting similar community notes across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Threads.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think Elon has played an incredibly important role in moving the debate and and getting people refocused on free expression, and that's been really constructive and productive," Kaplan said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The company also plans to adjust its automated systems that scan for policy violations, which it says have resulted in "too much content being censored that shouldn't have been".</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The systems will now be focused on checking only for illegal and "high-severity" violations such as terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams. Other concerns will have to be reported by users before the company evaluates them.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Zuckerberg said on Tuesday that Meta's complex systems to moderate content have mistakenly resulted in too much non-violating content being removed from the platform. For example, if the systems get something wrong 1 per cent of the time, that could represent millions of the company's more than 2 billion users.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"We've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship," Zuckerberg said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But Zuckerberg acknowledged that the new policy could create new problems for content moderation.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"The reality is this is a tradeoff," he said in the video.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"It means that we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down."</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The company is also getting rid of content restrictions on certain topics, such as immigration and gender identity, and rolling back limits on how much politics-related content users see in their feeds.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>As part of the changes, Meta will move its trust and safety teams responsible for content policies from California to Texas and other US locations.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>"I think that will help us build trust to do this work in places where there is less concern about the bias of our teams," Zuckerberg said.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f"><em><strong><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></strong></em></a><em><strong><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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