Mark Zuckerberg’s excuse for ending fact-checking program is a hoax, say experts: ‘It is a lie that we are censors’
Communication analysts criticize the replacement of professionals by X-style collective collaboration by Facebook and Instagram users against disinformation
Meta introduced the end of fact-checking on its networks, which it will implement this year in the United States, with its own hoax spread by its new head of global affairs, Joel Kaplan, and by the founder of the social network, Mark Zuckerberg. Both executives justified the end of the anti-hoax program with the argument that objective verification of the veracity of content is a form of censorship, and that the professionals in charge of it are introducing their own biases. This is false: the fact-checkers do not censor or eliminate content, they only warn of falsehoods, and they do not introduce biases either, since their work follows an objective methodology. The elimination of this service has led to a cascade of criticism from experts in social communication and Europe is demanding a strict application of the Digital Services Act (DSA) to maintain content moderation.
