Facebook (Meta) Ends Fact-Checking Program Amid Major Policy Shift
Meta adds Dana White to Board of Directors, plans to move content moderation offices from California to Texas.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, announced on Tuesday that it will discontinue its longstanding fact-checking program. The decision marks a significant shift in the company's content moderation strategy as it prepares for the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who won re-election in November.
Meta framed the move as a return to its core values of free expression. “We want to undo the mission creep that has made our rules too restrictive,” said Joel Kaplan, Meta’s newly appointed global policy chief. The new approach will rely on user-driven tools, similar to the Community Notes feature on X, to flag misleading information.
Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, acknowledged the trade-offs involved. “The reality is that this means catching less harmful content, but it also reduces the number of mistakes and wrongful content takedowns,” he explained.
The announcement aligns with a broader effort by Meta to improve its relationship with conservative leaders. In recent weeks, Zuckerberg has met with Trump and his team at Mar-a-Lago and donated $1 million to support Trump’s inauguration. Meta has also restructured its leadership, promoting Kaplan, a long-standing Republican ally, and adding Dana White, CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and a close Trump associate, to its board.
These changes follow years of criticism from conservatives, including Trump, who argued that Meta’s fact-checking practices unfairly targeted right-leaning voices. Kaplan reinforced this perspective in a recent television appearance, stating that the fact-checking program exhibited “too much political bias.”
Meta’s shift comes amid ongoing debates over the role of social media in shaping public discourse. The company initially launched its fact-checking initiative after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when it faced scrutiny for the spread of misinformation. Partnering with organizations like The Associated Press and Snopes, Meta aimed to combat false narratives on its platforms.
The recent policy change lifts restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity, which Zuckerberg described as “out of touch with mainstream discourse.” Additionally, Meta will relocate its U.S. content moderation operations from California to Texas, a move designed to address concerns about bias among employees.
The changes come as Zuckerberg navigates a political transformation of his own. Once vocal about issues such as immigration and social justice, the Meta CEO now appears focused on fostering a less restrictive online environment.