Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled significant changes to the company’s moderation policies on Tuesday, citing a shifting political and social climate and the need to restore free expression across its platforms. The updates will impact Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, which together serve billions of users globally. Meta will discontinue its existing fact-checking program, which relied on partnerships with third-party organizations, and implement a community-driven system similar to X’s Community Notes, according to a report by NBC News. “We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms,” Zuckerberg said in a video message. “First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.” Meta set to introduce Ray-Ban smart glasses in 2025 In addition, Meta will modify its content moderation policies, particularly around political topics. Changes that previously reduced political content in user feeds will be undone. Zuckerberg highlighted the U.S. election as a pivotal factor influencing these decisions, criticizing what he described as pressure from “governments and legacy media” to increase censorship. “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech,” he said. Zuckerberg acknowledged that the complex systems Meta had developed to moderate content were prone to errors, impacting millions of users. “We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes,” he said. “Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.” While Meta will continue to strictly moderate content related to drugs, terrorism, and child exploitation, the company plans to ease some policies surrounding sensitive topics like immigration and gender. Automated moderation systems will now focus on "high severity violations," relying more on user reports for less severe issues. “We’re also going to tune our content filters to require much higher confidence before taking down content,” Zuckerberg explained. “The reality is that this is a trade-off. It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.” Meta donates $1m to Trump's inauguration fund The decision to end the fact-checking program marks a departure from Meta’s earlier efforts, launched in 2016, which involved third-party fact-checkers certified by organizations like the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). Over 90 organizations participated, fact-checking content in more than 60 languages. Meta’s shift mirrors broader trends in the social media industry, where companies have increasingly scaled back on moderation efforts amid criticism of bias and politicization. Conservatives, in particular, have long accused Meta’s fact-checking system of favoring liberal viewpoints—a claim that has been disputed. X’s Community Notes, the model for Meta’s new system, has gained popularity among conservative users for its mix of fact-checking and community-driven contributions. Zuckerberg’s announcement comes as social media companies navigate a politically charged environment. The NBC News report notes that Meta, like other tech giants, has sought to align with incoming political leadership. The company donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, and Zuckerberg praised Trump in an interview before the election, though he stopped short of an endorsement.

ARTICLE 19, the UK-based human rights organization, and German leading media development organization DW Akademie have jointly launched an online course titled ‘Misinformation and Fact-checking: Media Information Literacy’. Registration of the course is now open. The five-week course, offered in Bangla, will begin on August 1, said a media release on Monday. Also read: ARTICLE 19 to support troubled journalists, activists in Bangladesh Anyone on desktop, laptop, tablet and smartphone can do the course at their convenience if they have internet connection only. One has to go to the link https://banglatutorial-media.org/ to register for the course.  Upon successful completion of the course, participants will receive an accomplishment certificate from DW Akademie and ARTICLE 19.

Facebook on Monday announced the expansion of its third-party fact-checking programme with the addition of international partner AFP and Bangladesh-based organization Fact Watch, as part of its ongoing efforts to reduce the spread of misinformation in Bangladesh. AFP and Fact Watch join Boom, who has partnered with Facebook since 2020 when the program was first introduced in Bangladesh. AFP and Fact Watch, which have been certified by the Poynter Institute's non-partisan International Fact Checking Network (IFCN), will review and rate the accuracy of Bangla and English stories on Facebook, including photos and videos in Bangladesh, said a media release. When third-party fact-checkers rate a story as false, altered or partly false, it will appear lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution on Facebook. Instagram will also make it harder to find by filtering from Explore and hashtag pages, and downranking it in Feed. Pages and domains that repeatedly share false news will also see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertise removed. In addition, content across Facebook and Instagram that has been rated false or altered is prominently labeled so people can better decide for themselves what to read, trust, and share. These labels are shown on top of false and altered photos and videos, including on top of Stories content on Instagram and link out to the assessment from the fact-checker. Facebook's fact-checking program started in December 2016. Today, the social media platform has over 80 partners fact-checking content in over 60 languages. “Expanding our fact-checking program with new partners from AFP and Fact Watch, is an important step in our effort to reduce false news which requires the support of the broader community. As part of our effort to build more informed communities, the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, the IFCN and our fact-checking partners will host a discussion on the importance of fact-checking during the pandemic. We welcome the efforts and hope to work together to help build a more informed community in Bangladesh,” said Anjali Kapoor, Director of News Partnership, APAC at Facebook. Last year, Facebook worked with the Ministry of Education, ICT Division and civil society partners in Bangladesh to launch We Think Digital, the company’s flagship program to empower the next generation of digital-first citizens to become more responsible and create respectful communities online. Last week, the Facebook Journalism Project and Reuters launched Reuters Digital Journalism Course in Bangladesh to help journalists build a strong foundation in digital reporting and editing. Facebook has been working with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and ICT Division to help people access information about COVID-19, hygiene practices and vaccines. In April, the social media platform also launched a media literacy campaign in Bangladesh to tackle COVID-related misinformation.