Meta rolls out new moderation guidelines
This week, CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Meta’s bold new direction toward promoting free speech. Considering the growing debate over the impact of online content and increasing pressure from governments and traditional media to ramp up censorship, Zuckerberg believes it's time for Facebook and Instagram to return to their roots of promoting open expression. This significant shift boils down to three key changes:
A new approach to fact-checking: Starting in the U.S., Meta will phase out its third-party fact-checking system, replacing it with ‘Community Notes’, encouraging users to contribute to content moderation.
More freedom of speech: Meta will relax restrictions on topics that are central to public discourse, focusing enforcement efforts only on illegal or high-risk violations.
Tailored political content: Meta will offer users more control over the political content they see, allowing those who want to engage more in politics to have it more readily available in their feeds.
Zuckerberg has also emphasised that users are now expressing a desire for more politics in their Facebook and Instagram feeds - an interesting twist after previous demands for less.
This shift marks a bold attempt to strike a new balance between freedom of expression and content moderation in the digital age.
It’s hard to predict how far this relaxing of censorship will go. As this shift comes into effect, it's important to closely monitor how users respond and, in Ireland, we have the advantage of being able to do that from afar. It’s important to note that these changes will not change anything in the EU. Ireland's media regulator, Coimisiún na Meán, confirmed that the changes are limited to the US and "do not apply to users within the European Union." In a statement, the commission emphasised its ongoing engagement with Meta to ensure compliance with the EU's Digital Services Act.
source:
