The fallout of Meta’s content moderation overhaul

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Meta is making sweeping changes to its contented moderation policies, including abandoning third-party truth checks successful favour of crowd-sourced “Community Notes” and loosening restrictions connected topics for illustration migration and gender identity. Under the updated Hateful Conduct policy, for example, calling cheery and trans group “mentally ill” is now allowed, while an definitive prohibition connected referring to women arsenic “household objects” has been removed.

New argumentation lead Joel Kaplan said that successful pursuit of “More Speech and Fewer Mistakes,” Meta will attraction much connected preventing over-enforcement of its contented policies and little connected mediating perchance harmful but technically ineligible discussions connected its platform.

It comes conscionable 2 weeks earlier President-elect Donald Trump is group to return to the White House, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement appealed to galore of the incoming administration’s talking points. Zuckerberg has promised to move US contented reappraisal from California to Texas, wherever he says there’s “less interest astir the bias of our teams,” and said Meta would activity pinch Trump to “push backmost connected governments astir the world that are going aft American companies and pushing to censor more.”

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  “Mark, Meta — invited to the party.”

  X CEO Linda Yaccarino commended Mark Zuckerberg’s move to ditch third-party fact-checking successful favour of a Community Notes-style moderation (inspired by X) onstage astatine CES. “It couldn’t beryllium much validating,” Yaccarino said. “Mark and Meta realized that it’s the astir effective, fastest truth checking, without bias.”

  “Mark, Meta — invited to the party,” she added.

  
  

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  Oversight Board to Meta: hey, retrieve us?

  The Meta Oversight Board — a semi-independent assemblage that interprets Meta’s rules and suggests changes — has responded to the recent dissolution of the company’s third-party fact-checking system. Its connection contains a bid of mildly worded reminders to Meta that it exists and would very overmuch for illustration to proceed existing successful the future, beautiful please.

  
  

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  Meta’s fact-checking changes are conscionable what Trump’s FCC caput asked for

  

  Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge

  I person to commend Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his caller argumentation main Joel Kaplan connected their timing. It’s not hugely astonishing that, arsenic the brace announced early today, Meta is giving up connected master third-party fact-checking. The usability of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads has been backing disconnected moderation recently, and fact-checking has ever been contentious. But it’s astir apt smart to do it 2 weeks earlier President-elect Donald Trump takes agency — and nominates a Federal Communications Commission caput who’s threatened the institution complete it.

  Trump’s FCC president prime (and existent FCC commissioner), Brendan Carr, is simply a self-identified free reside defender pinch a creative interpretation of the First Amendment. In mid-November, arsenic portion of a flurry of lightly menacing missives to various entities, Carr sent a letter to Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft attacking the companies’ fact-checking programs.

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