Instagram and Facebook owner Meta ends fact-checking of posts on the sites.
Social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram among others, will replace the current third-party fact-checking with a method similar to that found at X, formerly Twitter. There, it is the users who fact-check the content.
Could be connected to Trump
According to Andreas Onnerforsmedia researcher at Linnaeus University and project manager for the media institute Fojos Faktajouren, the decision can be seen against the background of Donald Trump soon takes over power in the United States.
The owner of X, Elon Muskwill then be responsible for an advisory body that will work to streamline the state bureaucracy.
Fake news takes place
— When Elon Musk has a very big influence, and still influences one of the world’s most powerful communication platforms, then Meta doesn’t want to look like it’s standing on the sidelines, says Önnerfors.
— The narrative that all forms of fact-checking and verification would be a form of censorship has won.
Önnerfors believes that the change will lead to fake news taking up more space on the platforms, which places a heavier responsibility on users to be critical of the content.
“You can imagine that it will open the floodgates so that the Meta platforms will also be flooded with even more shit, and then we will see what happens with X, that there will be more extreme and polarizing content,” he says.
Digital society can be affected
— It could have major consequences for the digital society that we have become accustomed to over the past 15 years.
The EU has regulations for how platforms must act against illegal content (DSA) and according to Andreas Önnerfors, Meta’s decision on the fact-checking goes against the grain of the legislation. So this is not the last time we hear about the rules, he says.
— This will have consequences for European politics.
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