While Republicans largely cheered Meta’s announcement on Tuesday that it would effectively end the fact-checking program, several technology watchdog groups condemned the decision, warning of the potential for an increase in misinformation.
Nicole Gill, executive director of Accountable Tech, said in a statement that the decision was “a gift to Donald Trump and extremists around the world.” Meta, he warned, was inviting “the same wave of hate, misinformation and conspiracy theories” that fueled the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill.
Nora Benavidez, senior counsel for the advocacy group Free Press, said in a statement that Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, was “saying yes to more lies, yes to more harassment, yes to more hate.”
“While Zuckerberg has characterized the platform giant’s new approach as a defense of free speech, his real intentions are twofold: To abdicate the tech company’s responsibility to protect the health and safety of its users, and to align the company more closely with a new president who is a known enemy of accountability,” said Ms. Benavidez.
Valerie Wirtschafter, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said Meta should continue to rely on its fact-checking resources, adding crowdsourced content to existing practices. As they are, Meta’s changes “are likely to make the information environment worse,” he said.
But Metta’s announcement was welcomed with open arms by President-elect Donald J. Trump, who has long claimed the feature unfairly treated posts from conservative users.
At an unrelated news conference at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said Meta “had gone too far,” admitting the change was “probably” in response to threats he has made against the company and Mr. Zuckerberg. A chorus of Republican lawmakers, who have echoed Mr. Trump for censoring conservative views, applauded the move.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky called it “a huge victory for free speech” in a post on X. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio called Metta’s decision “a huge step in the right direction.”
At least one Republican lawmaker expressed skepticism about Meta’s decision. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said in a post on X that Metta’s change was “a ploy to avoid regulation,” though she repeated the claim that Metta has censored conservatives.
