Social media researcher Suvi Uski says that politics is now being used as an extension of the intensifying competition between social media giants in the United States.
The technology company Meta announced on Tuesday that it will make significant changes to its moderation practices on its social media platforms. Meta owns, among others, Facebook and Instagram.
With the changes, the company waives, for example, fact checks performed by a third party.
– We’re going to ditch fact-checkers and replace them with community annotations, like X (formerly Twitter), Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told on his company’s website.
With the new feature, evaluating the correctness of the content will remain for users to comment and evaluate in the future.
According to Meta, the reform of moderation practices will be implemented in stages in the coming months, first in the United States. However, the company did not specify whether the feature will later be implemented elsewhere.
The competition between the giants pushes the limits
Social media researcher and CEO of Someturva Suvi Uski believes that Meta’s announcement is related to the tightening competition of social media giants in the United States.
– The social media giants are currently competing really hard for users and their time. Because of this, they test regulations, laws and all possible limits, says Uski.
A billionaire, I believe Elon Musk’s the changes made to message service X have played a significant role in influencing Meta’s decision. After buying Twitter, Musk changed the name of the service and weakened the moderation of the service citing freedom of speech.
– If another service stretches the existing rules, Meta wants to do so as well, and not be left behind in the competition. It is very unfortunate if Meta goes down the path of undermining the ethical operating principles of the services, says Uski.
The future president of the United States Donald Trump’s as the inauguration approaches, Zuckerberg has sought to improve his relationship with the future president. Among other things, the company has donated one million dollars to Trump’s inauguration fund.
According to Zuckerberg, Meta’s changes were made because “fact checkers have been too politically biased” and “destroyed more trust than created it, especially in the United States.”
In addition, according to Zuckerberg, “the recent election seems to have been a cultural turning point in which freedom of speech is again prioritized,” referring to last November’s US presidential election.
Sometutkija Uski sees that even if politics is made about the matter, it is primarily a matter of competition between companies that is part of the market economy and the desire to improve negotiating positions.
Companies need to think about which camp they are in and how their actions will be seen politically, he says.
– Politics is now used as an extension of competition. Trump, Musk and the Republicans have a lot of influence on the activities of the social media giants in the United States. I believe that Meta wants to be at these tables to negotiate the terms of its own operations.
The changes announced by Meta to its services will lead to a situation where it will be even more difficult for US users to verify the authenticity or correctness of the content shared in the service, believes social researcher Uski.
– On the other hand, this strengthens the social media bubbles where people primarily spend their time on social media. I could see that US users of Facebook and Instagram will now have to navigate a much more challenging social media environment than before.