Meta’s so-called “independent fact-checkers” are reportedly scrambling after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a major overhaul of the company’s controversial fact-checking initiative, which has been nothing more than a propaganda machine for leftist agendas.
On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the termination of the company’s controversial third-party fact-checking program.
After years of criticism for suppressing conservative voices and promoting a biased narrative, Meta will replace its fact-checking system with a user-driven “Community Notes” approach, modeled after Elon Musk’s platform X.
In a video statement, Zuckerberg finally admitted that Meta’s content moderation systems had silenced millions of Americans.
“Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people. We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” said Zuckerberg.
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech. We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms,” he added.
Recall that on July 2023, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) released a batch of documents called “The Facebook Files, Part 1 to 4,” proving Facebook’s compliance with the Biden regime’s request to censor specific content on its platform.
Rep. Jordan said that these never-before-released internal documents, obtained via Judiciary Committee subpoena, proved that Facebook and Instagram altered their content moderation policies and censored posts under pressure from the White House.
“During the first half of 2021, social media companies like Facebook faced tremendous pressure from the Biden White House—both publicly and privately—to crack down on alleged “misinformation,” Jordan wrote.
According to an internal email in April 2021 for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, an employee stated Facebook was continually pressed by “external stakeholders,” including the Biden White House, to remove certain posts.
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In May 2024, the House Judiciary Committee released an 800-page report on the Biden White House censorship regime.
The report included numerous times the Biden regime threatened social media companies to censor, silence, and take down information on the COVID origins and the COVID vaccines.
Investigative reporter Mike Benz revealed “10 flaming examples.” Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon explicitly said they only passed censorship policies because they were threatened by the Biden government.
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In his recent video announcement, Zuckerberg outlined five key initiatives to return the platforms to their foundational purpose: giving people a voice.
- Replacing Fact Checkers with Community Notes
Meta plans to phase out its controversial fact-checking system, replacing it with a community-driven notes model similar to X. Zuckerberg acknowledged that fact-checkers had become overly political, eroding trust among users. The change will begin in the United States and expand globally over time. - Simplifying Content Policies
Zuckerberg committed to removing overly restrictive content rules on sensitive topics such as immigration and gender. The goal is to foster a platform where diverse opinions can thrive without fear of suppression. - Reducing Censorship Errors
Meta will recalibrate its content moderation systems, focusing on high-severity violations while relying more on user reports for low-severity issues. - Reviving Civic Content
Responding to user feedback, Meta will reintroduce civic and political content into users’ feeds. - Relocating Moderation Teams to Texas
To address concerns of political bias, Meta’s trust and safety operations will move from California to Texas. Zuckerberg argues this relocation will enhance trust and balance in content review decisions.
Now, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which has long been a cornerstone of Meta’s now-defunct program, is in full-blown crisis mode.
Hours after Meta’s announcement, IFCN director Angie Holan confirmed an emergency meeting to address the fallout.
“This program has been a major part of the global fact-checking community’s work for years,” Nolan told Business Insider. “People are upset because they saw themselves as partners in good standing with Meta, doing important work to make the platform more accurate and reliable.”
Holan and other fact-checkers have dismissed claims of censorship, insisting their role was merely to “add context.”
“It was never about censorship but about adding context to prevent false claims from going viral,” Holan claimed despite mounting evidence to prove otherwise.
For years, conservatives, including The Gateway Pundit, have experienced the real-world effects of this “context,” often finding their posts buried, flagged, or outright removed for challenging progressive orthodoxy.
Conservatives have long criticized Meta’s partnerships with left-leaning organizations like PolitiFact, acting as gatekeepers to stifle viewpoints that challenge liberal narratives.
Business Insider reported:
The International Fact-Checking Network has convened an emergency meeting of its members following Meta’s announcement on Tuesday that it will end its third-party fact-checking partnerships in the US and replace them with a crowdsourced moderation tool similar to X’s community notes.
[…]
The meeting is expected to draw between 80 and 100 attendees from the IFCN’s network of fact-checkers, which spans 170 organizations worldwide. Not all the expected attendees are Meta fact-checking partners, though many of them have a stake in the program’s future and its global implications.
The IFCN has long played a crucial role in Meta’s fact-checking ecosystem by accrediting organizations for Meta’s third-party program, which began in 2016 after the US presidential election that year.
Certification from the IFCN signaled that a fact-checking organization met rigorous editorial and transparency standards. Meta’s partnerships with these certified organizations became a cornerstone of its efforts to combat misinformation, focusing on flagging false claims, contextualizing misinformation, and curbing its spread.
[…]
An employee at PolitiFact, one of the first news organizations to partner with Meta on its Third-Party Fact-Checking Program in December 2016, said the company received virtually no warning from Meta before the program was killed.
“The PolitiFact team found out this morning at the same time as everyone else,” the employee told BI.
Meta’s recent policy changes across platforms like Facebook and Instagram follow Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Mark Zuckerberg is desperate to make amends with Donald Trump and the movement he represents.
The Meta CEO has appointed UFC President, fervent Trump supporter, and ally Dana White to the company’s board.
Zuckerberg has also ousted Meta’s left-wing executive Nick Clegg, replacing him with Republican Joel Kaplan, who served as White House Deputy Chief of Staff under George W. Bush, in a dramatic shake-up of the company’s leadership.
For critics, however, these actions are far from sufficient to address the damage caused over the years.
Lives disrupted, incomes lost, and livelihoods destroyed through Meta’s controversial moderation practices have left a lasting impact.
Many believe Zuckerberg should be held accountable for the harm and view these changes as too little, too late to atone for his crimes.
The post Meta’s Biased ‘Fact-Checkers’ in Panic Mode: Emergency Meeting Called After Zuckerberg Pulls the Plug on Their Propaganda Machine appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.