Meta continues to use fact checkers outside the USA for the time being
Social media giant Meta is planning to keep its fact-checking program outside the US for the time being. This could also have to do with legal hurdles.
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The US company Meta will continue to use fact-checkers outside the US “for now”, while the practice will be abolished in the United States itself. This was reported by the US news agency Bloomberg with reference to statements by Nicola Mendelsohn, head of Meta's global business. In an interview with Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday, Mendelsohn said that the company first wanted to wait and see what effect the change in practice would have in the United States. “Nothing is changing in the rest of the world right now, we are still working with the fact-checkers around the world,” she said.
Earlier this year, the parent company of popular social networks such as Facebook and Instagram announced that it would stop working with independent fact-checkers. Instead, Meta will introduce a form of community notes for its platforms based on the X model. Users will rate content themselves. “The fact-checkers were too politically biased and destroyed more trust than they created, at least in the US,” said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, explaining the controversial decision, which coincides with the arrival of the new Donald Trump administration in the White House. Meta had previously introduced fact-checking over several years – in response to criticism of the spread of misinformation via its platforms.
Obstacles to abolishing fact-checking in the EU
Outside the US, Meta could face hurdles to abolishing fact-checkers, according to Bloomberg, particularly in the European Union (EU), where stricter laws such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) regulate how digital services deal with illegal content and misinformation. Under the DSA, the EU requires large platforms to actively weed out fraudulent political content and disinformation; otherwise they risk heavy fines.
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“In Europe, there are more and more laws that institutionalize censorship and make it difficult to build anything innovative there,” Zuckerberg criticized the strict EU regulations. The EU tech commissioner defends herself against the accusation. The DSA does not lead to censorship, contradicted Henna Virkkunen, Vice-President of the EU Commission responsible for technological sovereignty and democracy.
(akn)
