back to top
Friday, February 7, 2025
30 C
Sydney

Checking the fact-checkers: Facebook’s fight against censorship

Most read

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Photo: Instagram/@zuck.

Mark Zuckerberg is changing the way Facebook, Instagram and Threads moderate content on the social platforms in what he says is a move to encourage free speech. In January Meta CEO announced the sites will stop using the fact checkers they installed in 2016 and move to a community notes set-up, much like the one seen on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

The change has been welcomed by users who are looking forward to having an increased freedom to post content, but two prominent Sydney Catholics have voiced a note of caution about the policy change. 

Zuckerberg says he created Facebook as a way to give people a voice on the burgeoning online landscape which was only beginning to form when he launched the platform in 2004 but since then, there has been widespread use and abuse of social media.  

- Advertisement -

In a video posted to Instagram, which Zuckerberg owns, he said, while he wishes to protect free expression on his platforms there has been “widespread debate about the potential harms of online content.” 

“We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex system is they make mistakes,” he said.  

“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.”  

Mark Zuckerberg is changing the way Facebook, Instagram and Threads moderate content on the social platforms in what he says is a move to encourage free speech.

Zuckerberg laid out a six-point plan of action aimed at encouraging discussion on his platform, starting with the removal of fact checkers in favour of community notes–a feature any user will be allowed to edit.  

Meta, in a statement written by Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan, said the aim with the implementation of fact checkers was to not be the “arbiters of truth” but to give the responsibility of combatting misinformation to independent organisations, who have experience in identifying and correcting what appears online.  

Instead, he wrote, these experts did not work as intended and their biases clouded their judgement and impacted the decisions they made with regards to what needed to be fact checked, with penalties being passed onto users who were targeted by these experts.  

“Our system then attached real consequences in the form of intrusive labels and reduced distribution,” the statement reads.  

“A program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor.”  

Prominent Australian author and social commentator Dr Kevin Donnelly says the third-party fact checkers were not always correct in their judgements and often pushed their own agendas.

Meta. Photo: Pexels.com.

“I don’t think people should be censored because whoever might be in charge disagrees with their point of view,” he said. 

“There’s always a question of who’s fact checking the fact checkers?” 

Donnelly said fact checkers on social media sites should not stop debate on the platforms because it does not align with their beliefs and doing so “gives a very biased and one-sided view of things.”  

“I don’t believe that by saying something is going to be checked that it makes it more truthful,” he said.  

Initial reactions to the policy change were positive, however, there are concerns as to how the new change will impact user experience on the platforms.

The policy statement lays out how the new system is intended to be used and says, after the community notes system is established, Meta will not write community notes or pass judgement on which notes are chosen. 

This means other users of Meta’s platforms will become the ones who are contributing to and maintaining this system–not experts who at the very least are vetted by the platform.  

Meta heralds this as a new era for the sites and says there will be consensus between those who hold different views to “help prevent biased ratings.” 

Fact checkers on social media sites should not stop debate on the platforms because it does not align with their beliefs and doing so “gives a very biased and one-sided view of things.” Photo: Pexels.com.

“We intend to be transparent about how different viewpoints inform the Notes displayed in our apps, and are working on the right way to share this information.”  

Promoting different viewpoints is a critical part of Zuckerberg’s announcement about the changing policy on Meta and the CEO, specifically singling out immigration and gender as topics facing “a bunch of restrictions” under the current content moderation.  

“I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms,” he said.  

“The problem is that the filters make mistakes and take down a lot of content that they shouldn’t, so by dialling them back we’re going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms.” 

Director of Public Affairs and Engagement for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney Monica Doumit says the change is a move in the right direction for those who do not hold populist beliefs.  

“I think it should be cautiously welcomed by those who have views that sometimes are not particularly popular or, at least, not in line with the progressive orthodoxy that has been dominating social media up until, really, Elon Musk’s takeover of X,” she said.   

“But the reason we should respond cautiously is because we can’t be quick to assume that all of the content that was being blockedand that will now be allowed inis positive, conservative, really religiously-themed content.” 

facebook
Promoting different viewpoints is a critical part of Zuckerberg’s announcement. Photo; Pexels.com.

The concern as to unknown and unsavoury content being allowed onto Meta’s platforms is one echoed by Zuckerberg as he admits his new anti-censorship content policy is not faultless.  

“The reality is that this is a trade-off,” he says. 

“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.”  

While there were no specifics given as to what negative content would be present on the platform after these changes are put into effect, Doumit said parents should be vigilant. 

“We’ll be taking the good with the bad and, I think, people are just going to have to do what they usually do, which is, maybe, to be vigilant about the type of content that you consume and the type of content your kids consume,” she said.  

Zuckerberg’s announcement comes shortly after Donald Trump’s second election as United States president and is in stark contrast to how the site’s censors operated during the pandemic at the beginning of the decade. 

The decision to remove fact checkers and encourage different points of view is not the only thing Zuckerberg has done to ally himself with the new president as political posts will now be promoted and Trump has been enlisted in the global fight against censorship. 

facebook
Parents need to be vigilant about the type of content they consume and the type of content their kids consume. Photo: Pexels.com.

“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” he said.  

The policy is more aligned with the politics of the president-elect than of Facebook in years gone by – and this has not gone unnoticed by Donnelly. 

“I think there is a bit of self-serving here,” he said.  

“Zuckerberg realises that the election of Trump, there will be significant changed, and these changes will impact very much on social media. 

“He’s really making these changes to ensure, I think, that he’s more in line with what President-elect Trump will want to do.” 

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -