Meta employees expressed concern on their internal forum over the company’s decision to end third-party fact-checking two weeks before Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
They criticized the move, fearing it could lead to the spread of misinformation during a critical period.
Employees raised concerns after Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new chief global affairs officer and former White House deputy chief of staff under George W. Bush, announced the content policy changes on Workplace, the company’s internal communications platform, as reported by CNBC.
“We’re optimistic that these changes help us return to that fundamental commitment to free expression,” Kaplan wrote in the post.
The content policy announcement came amid a series of decisions seemingly aimed at appeasing the incoming Trump administration.
On Monday, Meta added new board members, including UFC CEO Dana White, a close ally of Trump, and in December, the company confirmed a $1 million contribution to Trump’s inauguration.
As part of the recent changes, Kaplan announced that Meta would end its fact-checking program and adopt a user-generated system similar to X’s Community Notes.
One employee expressed being “extremely concerned” about the decision, stating that it seemed Meta was “sending a bigger, stronger message to people that facts no longer matter” and falsely framing it as a win for free speech.
Another worker criticized the decision, stating that “simply absolving ourselves from the duty to at least try to create a safe and respectful platform is a really sad direction to take.”
Others expressed concerns about the potential impact on discussions around sensitive topics like immigration, gender identity, and gender, warning that the policy change could lead to an “influx of racist and transphobic content.”
A separate employee voiced fear, stating, “We’re entering into really dangerous territory by paving the way for the further spread of misinformation.”
However, the changes were not universally criticized, as some Meta employees supported the decision to end third-party fact-checking.
One employee praised the move, stating that X’s Community Notes feature has “proven to be a much better representation of the ground truth.”
Another employee suggested the company should “provide an accounting of the worst outcomes of the early years” that led to the creation of the third-party fact-checking program and assess whether the new policies would prevent similar fallout in the future.
While Meta officially announced the end of its fact-checking program on Tuesday, the company had already been scaling it back.
Recall that a spokesperson for the Associated Press in September, stated that the agency’s “fact-checking agreement with Meta ended back in January 2024.”
