The Americans interfered reactions to Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking program this week, and some told Fox News Digital the move was troubling.
“Freedom of speech should be absolute,” one respondent told Fox News Digital in Texas. “I don’t think anyone has the authority to censor anyone.”
CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday that it would end its fact-checking program and lift speech restrictions to “restore freedom of expression” on Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platforms, admitting that its current content moderation practices “have gone too far.” Zuckerberg said the new system for Meta will be similar to Elon Musk’s Community Notes on X.
“I like the fact that we got rid of the fact-checkers. The fact-checkers weren’t really fact-checking much, just who paid them to fact-check,” Rudy told Fox News Digital. “Sounds like they can’t be trusted to me. Same thing, just invited, a little too late for that. But I think it’s better than what they had.”
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that his company will adopt a new fact-checking system similar to Elon Musk’s X Community Notes. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Other Americans told Fox News Digital that the announcement was disappointing.
“It’s disappointing to me, because you want all of your social media to be as fact-checked as possible so that you get accurate information. I’m really concerned that Facebook might not, you know, go through that fact-checking process like it should, I believe,” Greg told Fox News Digital.
Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was introduced after the 2016 election and has been used to “manage content” and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to “political pressure,” executives said, but acknowledged that the system “has gone too far.”
Multiple people told Fox News Digital they hadn’t yet heard about Meta’s announcement.
Facebook application on smartphone. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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“Honestly, a few years ago, I probably would have said, ‘Well, it’s a private company. They have the right to do what they want and people should use their own brains to figure out what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s true. .’ But I’m a psychology major and I’m starting to realize that people don’t always stop and think for themselves, so maybe they need someone else to check the facts for them, so, yeah, that’s a concern,” Melissa said.
Fox News Digital also asked Texas residents about Zuckerberg’s move Content moderation by Meta team to their country.
“Yeah, we’ll give them a chance and see what the outcome is,” Greg said. “I ditched all my social media, you know, just because it’s not fact-checked and it’s not controlled the way I believe it should be.”
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Another Texan, Madeline, told Fox News Digital that Zuckerberg is most likely moving to Texas because businesses are “easier to run” in the state and questioned his reasons for moving operations from California.
Elizabeth Heckman called from Texas.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
