'It's time to get back to our roots,' the Meta CEO says in killing formal fact checks. It's clear that Zuckerberg has watched Musk’s political ascent and seeks to follow the same playbook.
By Chandra Steele
January 7, 2025
(Credit: Bloomberg/Getty Images)It wasn’t long ago that the tech world was talking about Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk taking their trash talk into a UFC cage.
No physical punches were ever thrown, but Musk won a philosophical battle today when Zuckerberg turned Meta into X.
In announcing plans to axe fact-checkers on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads and embrace a Community Notes approach, Zuckerberg and Joel Kaplan, Meta’s newly appointed global affairs head, tipped their hats to Musk-owned X.
"We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see,” Kaplan said.
In his own posts on Threads and Facebook, Zuckerberg said Meta would also "simplify our content policies and remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender" and focus "our filters on tackling illegal and high-severity violations."
In announcing plans to axe fact-checkers on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads and embrace a Community Notes approach, Zuckerberg and Joel Kaplan, Meta’s newly appointed global affairs head, tipped their hats to Musk-owned X.
"We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see,” Kaplan said.
In his own posts on Threads and Facebook, Zuckerberg said Meta would also "simplify our content policies and remove restrictions on topics like immigration and gender" and focus "our filters on tackling illegal and high-severity violations."
He also pledged to work "with President Trump to push back against foreign governments going after American companies to censor more.”
Zuckerberg added, without irony, that “It's time to get back to our roots around free expression and giving people a voice on our platforms." But it’s clear that “free” expression will have costs—and not for those who will have a voice on Meta’s platforms.
Emulating the Community Notes feature from X, where users instead of professionals are left to fact-check one another, is inviting a quick descent into the 4chan-ish cesspool X has become under Musk’s direction. It’s a deliberate direction, as Zuckerberg directly cited X in an accompanying video he posted to Instagram.
It’s fitting that Zuckerberg then takes aim at the two groups who have been the biggest lightning rods for hate on X in recent weeks: immigrants and trans people.
Meta's CEO pledged to "get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse. 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 doesn't specify who has been shut down or shut out. But it's easy to find people who have been harmed by misinformation posted on social media. Indian immigrants, for example, faced a swarm of racism on X after venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan was appointed as an advisor on AI by Trump. And immigrants have faced taunts from those who support the mass deportations Trump has promised in his second term.
As for trans people, Meta was already cited by LGBTQ+ advocacy GLAAD months ago for allowing anti-trans hate to proliferate on its platforms and was just found to be limiting access for teens to LGBTQ+ content.
The trans community is a personal target for Musk. Last year, he moved X and SpaceX out of California, in part due to a bill intended to help protect the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ students.
Zuckerberg added, without irony, that “It's time to get back to our roots around free expression and giving people a voice on our platforms." But it’s clear that “free” expression will have costs—and not for those who will have a voice on Meta’s platforms.
Emulating the Community Notes feature from X, where users instead of professionals are left to fact-check one another, is inviting a quick descent into the 4chan-ish cesspool X has become under Musk’s direction. It’s a deliberate direction, as Zuckerberg directly cited X in an accompanying video he posted to Instagram.
It’s fitting that Zuckerberg then takes aim at the two groups who have been the biggest lightning rods for hate on X in recent weeks: immigrants and trans people.
Meta's CEO pledged to "get rid of a bunch of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just out of touch with mainstream discourse. 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 doesn't specify who has been shut down or shut out. But it's easy to find people who have been harmed by misinformation posted on social media. Indian immigrants, for example, faced a swarm of racism on X after venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan was appointed as an advisor on AI by Trump. And immigrants have faced taunts from those who support the mass deportations Trump has promised in his second term.
As for trans people, Meta was already cited by LGBTQ+ advocacy GLAAD months ago for allowing anti-trans hate to proliferate on its platforms and was just found to be limiting access for teens to LGBTQ+ content.
The trans community is a personal target for Musk. Last year, he moved X and SpaceX out of California, in part due to a bill intended to help protect the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ students.
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