Facebook is to scrap its fact-checkers after founder Mark Zuckerberg said they have “been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created” as he pledged to “restore free expression” on the social network. The Telegraph has more.
Mr. Zuckerberg on Tuesday promised that parent company Meta would “get rid of fact-checkers” and replace them with a system of “community notes, similar to X”, echoing the approach of rival billionaire Elon Musk.
It follows the exit of Sir Nick Clegg, the former Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader, as the tech giant’s head of global affairs, a role in which he led a crackdown on hate speech.
Sir Nick has been replaced by the former Republican Party operator Joel Kaplan, who will lead Facebook’s public policy operations.
In a further sign of the company’s shift towards the Right, Mr. Zuckerberg this week appointed longstanding Donald Trump ally Dana White, the Chief Executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship, as a board member.
Mr. Zuckerberg said: “Fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created.”
He added that Facebook would “get rid of a bunch of restrictions” on topics including gender and immigration amid a wider corporate backlash against diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Mr. Zuckerberg said: “What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions.”
The Facebook founder said the technology company had gone too far in tackling “disinformation” in the wake of Mr. Trump’s election victory in 2016, amid fears over Russian meddling and fake news, adding that “we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship”.
He has previously accused Joe Biden’s White House of pressuring Facebook to censor content around coronavirus, saying: “I regret we were not more outspoken about it.”
The decision to ditch some of Facebook’s core moderation policies comes after the departure of Sir Nick, previously one of Mr. Zuckerberg’s key lieutenants who was closely involved in the decision to suspend Mr. Trump from Facebook in 2021. …
In a statement, the Oversight Board said: “The Oversight Board welcomes the news that Meta will revise its approach to fact-checking, with the goal of finding a scalable solution to enhance trust, free speech and user voice on its platforms.”
Mr. Zuckerberg added that Facebook planned to “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.
It comes as Britain prepares to implement the Online Safety Act, starting in March.
Good riddance to the fatuous checkers, their reign was brief but inglorious. And what will poor Leo Benedictus do now? It’s hard to hold back the tears.
Does this mean we’ll be allowed to talk freely about facemasks, lockdowns and Covid vaccines as well? Let’s hope so.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Marvellous!
The Democrats don’t like the British Empire even though they have one of their own!
Badenoch is now third in the Conservative leadership election.
So the Conservatives will be led by another Westminster yes man cardboard cut out.
Reform.
Anyone conservative was always going to be removed from the ‘choice’ – we know that…
She is only parading her ‘conservative’ values to win over the sucker membership vote. And boy oh boy any member left in the Tory party is either a sucker or a wet.
Badenoch would become a cardboard cut out yes lady too. They don’t become leader without taking the Danegeld.
The tail end of the left wing Biden administration (likely run by Obama for most of the past 4 years) just doesn’t care. Most politicians have short time horizons.
Aside from the security issue, they were ours and had never been meaningfully Mauritian. There might be minerals in their territorial area.
We know Mauritius cannot protect and secure these islands over 2000 miles.
Whoever comes at the top heap won’t be relevant for long. The Tories haven’t learned anything over the last few months and until they unite with a common purpoe they are doomed.
What is all this tosh about the “special relationship”? American foreign policy is directed at protecting the interests of the United States – and no one else. In other words the “special relationship” is a childish delusion peddled by adults who ought to know better.
It is where the UK bends over and the US decides how far it will shaft us.
You are absolutely correct. How many countries and politicians have been destroyed by this fallacy of a special relationship with Washington? Politicians delude themselves and fall into this hole because of their need and quest to be close to power. Bliar is a good example.
Next on the list will be Gibraltar …. demonstrating our continuing vassal status to the EU.
This is what happens when you have a treacherous parcel o’ rogues running a nation …… the kind we’ve had since the 1960s.
“… the country’s government sold the islands to Britain for a tidy sum.”
So we can get that back with interest and allowance for inflation and pay the pensioners’ Winter fuel allowance – or buy Free Gear Keir a new suit.
None of these shenanigans will get a single Chagos Islander back to their islands though, at least they won’t be our problem anymore.
Of course if the Yanks did tell Liebour to hand over the Islands lets hope Mauritius doesn’t now ask them to leave too but if they do I hope the yanks will have the good sense to totally and utterly demolish all infrastructure, and flood with concrete anything underground.