Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that substantial changes will be implemented to the company’s content moderation policies, signaling a shift toward safeguarding free expression across its platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
A central component of the changes involves the termination of Meta’s third-party fact-checking program in the United States. Introduced in 2016, the program aimed to combat misinformation by relying on independent fact-checking organizations. However, Zuckerberg admitted the initiative had unintended consequences.
“Fact checkers have been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created,” Zuckerberg said in a video posted Tuesday morning (U.S. time)
“What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far.” he added.
To replace the fact-checking program, Meta will adopt a Community Notes system, inspired by the collaborative fact-checking model used on X (formerly Twitter).
Joel Kaplan, chief global Affairs officer of Meta, said in a port that it will allow users to contribute and rate context for flagged posts, with safeguards in place to ensure diverse perspectives and reduce the risk of bias.
Unlike the fact-checking program, Meta will no longer apply intrusive content labels or demote flagged posts, opting instead for subtle prompts offering additional information.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that Meta’s content moderation systems have become overly complex and restrictive, leading to excessive censorship.
He said that in December 2024 alone, Meta removed millions of posts daily, with up to 20% of those actions likely being mistakes.
“For example, in December 2024, we removed millions of pieces of content every day. While these actions account for less than 1% of content produced every day, we think one to two out of every 10 of these actions may have been mistakes (i.e., the content may not have actually violated our policies),” Kaplan stated.
“This does not account for actions we take to tackle large-scale adversarial spam attacks. We plan to expand our transparency reporting to share numbers on our mistakes on a regular basis so that people can track our progress. As part of that we’ll also include more details on the mistakes we make when enforcing our spam policies,” he added.
As part of the overhaul, Meta will refine its automated systems to focus on high-severity violations such as terrorism, child exploitation, and fraud. For less critical policy breaches, the company will rely on user reports before taking action. Moreover, content demotions will be significantly reduced, and stricter thresholds will be applied before posts are taken down.
Meta is also rolling back some of its restrictions on politically sensitive topics such as immigration, gender identity, and other subjects central to public debates. He emphasized that Meta’s platforms should reflect the same freedoms as other public forums
These changes aim to create a more open environment for political discourse, ensuring that Meta’s platforms are spaces where diverse viewpoints can be shared without undue interference.
To address widespread frustrations with its content enforcement process, Meta is ramping up its review operations. The company will add staff to expedite appeals and ensure more accurate decisions. In addition, AI-powered language models will provide secondary evaluations on flagged content to minimize errors.
Meta is also exploring new security measures, such as testing facial recognition for account recovery and simplifying the process for users to regain access to locked accounts.
“We’re also going to change how we enforce our policies to reduce the kind of mistakes that account for the vast majority of the censorship on our platforms. Up until now, we have been using automated systems to scan for all policy violations, but this has resulted in too many mistakes and too much content being censored that shouldn’t have been,” he explained.
“So, we’re going to continue to focus these systems on tackling illegal and high-severity violations, like terrorism, child sexual exploitation, drugs, fraud and scams,” Kaplan said.
In a bid to offer users more control over their experience, Meta plans to reintroduce political and civic content with a more personalized approach. Since 2021, Meta has limited the visibility of posts related to elections, politics, and social issues based on user feedback. Now, the company will use a combination of explicit signals (likes, shares) and implicit ones (post views) to determine the relevance of such content for individual users.
Zuckerberg underscored Meta’s mission to uphold free expression, a principle he highlighted in his 2019 Georgetown University speech. He reiterated the dangers of suppressing speech, even with good intentions, and vowed to remain vigilant about the impact of Meta’s policies.
He said these are about restoring the balance between protecting users and empowering them.
The new policies will be rolled out in phases, starting in the United States over the next several months. Zuckerberg emphasized that Meta would monitor the impact of these changes and make further adjustments as needed to ensure they align with the company’s core values.
