Social media giant, Meta has announced that it is scrapping its content moderation programme for a community-based fact-checking system that is similar to X’s. According to CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, this move will promote free speech and reduce mistakes from regulation conversations about contentious topics.
Under the previous system, Meta identified posts that might be promoting misinformation based on how people were responding. Independent fact-checkers would also work to identify posts with possible misinformation on their own. Posts that were said to include misinformation would then be shown lower in feeds as they waited for review.
Then, the independent fact-checkers would then work to verify the accuracy of the content that had been flagged and give it an appropriate label. It applied posts on Facebook initially but expanded to include Instagram in 2019 and Threads in 2024.
Fact-checkers reviewed content including “ads, articles, photos, videos, Reels, audio and text-only posts.”
“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression,” Zuckerberg said in a video. Recall that Zuckerberg recently expressed regret over certain content moderation actions on topics including COVID-19.
Zuckerberg pointed to the election as a major influence on the company’s decision and criticized “governments and legacy media” for allegedly pushing “to censor more and more.”

X’s Community Notes system, which CEO Elon Musk has used to replace the company’s previous efforts around misinformation, has been celebrated by conservatives, and it has allowed for a mixture of fact-checking, trolling and other community-driven behaviour.
“We are going to focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. We are going to tune our content filters to require much higher confidence before taking down content”, he added.
According to Reuters, the latest changes will affect Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The three make up a list of the world’s biggest social media platforms with more than 3 billion users worldwide. The report also indicates that Meta’s independent Oversight Board welcomed the move.
Meta’s relentless appeal to Trump…
The move marks a reversal in Meta’s content moderation policy which started in 2016. It is also surprising as CEO, Mark Zuckerberg has long championed active content moderation despite criticism from conservatives for sustaining censorship on its platforms and preventing free speech.
Trump, who will be sworn in as the 47th US President on January 20 has been highly critical of Facebook and Zuckerberg. Trump claimed that the social media platform was used against him during the 2017 election.


The recent move is however consistent with the platform’s recent push towards becoming friends with the camp of the President-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump. Following the election, Mark dined with Trump at his Mar-A-Lago residence in Florida in what seems to be a relationship repair between his firm and the President-elect in November.
The company named prominent Republican policy executive Joel Kaplan as global affairs head and elected Dana White, CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a close friend of President-elect Donald Trump, to its board.
In a statement issued on Monday, Meta CEO and Founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the trio will usher in a depth of experience that will help the company tackle the massive opportunities in the tech world.
“Dana, John, and Charlie will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables, and the future of human connection,” said Zuckerberg.


Meta also donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, a drastic departure from its past practice. The company did not make such a donation to President Joe Biden’s inaugural fund in 2020 or Trump’s previous inaugural fund in 2016.
Mark Zuckerberg looks far less close to his fellow tech rival, Elon Musk who has been Trump’s “First Buddy” following his extensive donations to his election campaign.
This saw the appointment of Elon Musk as a co-leader of the Department for Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). A role that aims to create a more efficient government, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal agencies.