A new day may be dawning for free speech on social media platforms as Meta’s founder Mark Zuckerberg announced major and welcome changes to Facebook and Instagram. The truly stunning top line change that deserves a gold star is that Meta will no longer contract outside so-called third-party “fact checking” organizations to police their platforms. These organizations, such as PolitiFact, and more broadly the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network, have for over a decade censored conservative ideas with unquestioned bias that the Media Research Center has exposed over and over and over again.
MRC Founder and President Brent Bozell made clear the significance of Zuckerberg’s promises and admissions during an interview on the Jan. 8 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club. Zuckerberg “was unequivocal in recognizing that they have been in the business of censorship as we’ve been saying for years, and they’ve been denying for years,” he said. In politics and policy there is rarely such a thing as an unalloyed victory, but this 180-degree turn from Meta is pretty close.
In the place of the overtly left-leaning “fact checkers” of old, Zuckerberg says that a version of Community Notes will be used, instead. Community Notes, which Elon Musk introduced to his X platform after buying it, relies on users to crowdsource fact checking and the addition of meaningful context. Community Notes has obvious flaws, which we have noted in this newsletter in the past, but make no mistake, it is a sea change improvement compared to the woke fact checking organizations it replaces.
And it isn’t just how the content policy operations are done that will be changing at Meta, but also where. The offices of Meta’s trust and safety teams will move from bright blue California to ruby red Texas in an attempt to gain more ideological diversity.
On WMAL, Bozell said of this change, “He said he’s firing everybody who was involved with [censorship], but here’s the kicker—it sounds kind of silly but it isn't. He said he is moving those operations to Texas.” This drew approval from radio host Larry O’Connor, who chimed in: “That was the biggest part of the whole statement, Brent. You’re so right.”
And the hits just keep on coming as it was also announced this week that Dana White of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a firm ally of President-elect Donald Trump, will be joining Meta’s board of directors. Meanwhile, Meta has made another announcement that The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway called a “vibe shift,” tapping Joel Kaplan, a former George W. Bush White House Chief of Staff, to take over from the censorious Nick Clegg as the company’s Global Policy Chief. For his part, the outgoing Clegg babbled about transparency, without apologizing for the censorship and election interference wrought by his leadership.
There is reason for optimism regarding all the above changes at Meta, even one might argue, reason for a victory lap for organizations like MRC and those of the Free Speech Alliance who have fought tooth and nail against social media censorship for years, but we also must be cautious. Even if Zuckerberg is sincere, if not quite contrite, about his renewed dedication to free speech, the devil is in the details. Community Notes, though much better than fact-check organizations like the Poynter Institute’s IFCN, with their progressive ideologies, can be gamed not just by the Meta employees who operate it, but by groups of users themselves.
The transformation of Meta’s content moderation policies is a big win, but it is only one battle. The war over free speech in America still rages on. Just as D-Day was a phenomenal Allied victory that would have been meaningless without the following charge across Europe, these developments at Meta are not an invitation to relax our efforts, but rather, to redouble them.
Rarely in the age of Big Tech have proponents of free speech had so much wind at their back. Trump’s presidency, a GOP Congress, Brendan Carr leading up the Federal Communications Commission, other free speech advocates being tapped for places across government, and now the reversals at Meta provide an enormous opportunity. Vigilant MRC will remain, as we continue our efforts to make sure everyone in the fight is armed with the facts and information America needs to win.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
