Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that his company would be making massive changes to restore free speech on his platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
Zuckerberg shared the news in a video posted to Facebook, which comes after he had recently been showing signs of moving away from the radical left — with many people pointing out that he had suddenly begun moving toward the center after starting to practice martial arts, attributing the change to an increase in testosterone:
The Meta CEO explained in the video that his company would be ending its relationship with so-called “independent fact-checkers,” and would also end restrictions on discussing issues like gender and immigration. The company will also reportedly scale back its AI filters that censored people for harmless posts.
Zuckerberg noted that Meta would instead begin focusing on protecting free expression — arguing that the recent election has prompted the changes because it was a “cultural tipping point.”
“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,” he said. “We’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.”
Zuckerberg also highlighted an issue that conservatives have been speaking out about for some time now: the fact that these so-called “fact-checkers” had become insanely biased toward the left and thus are untrustworthy.
“After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy,” he said. “We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth. But the fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they created, especially in the U.S.”
He further explained that the restrictions placed on topics like immigration and gender were “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,” Zuckerberg added.
The Meta CEO went on to reveal that his company would be dialing back content filters and instead focusing on illegal content and severe violations. He argued that this “trade off” would mean that some objectionable content may make it past the filters, but the positive result would be that fewer people would be censored.
Zuckerberg also revealed that he would be relocating Meta’s Trust and Safety content moderation teams from California to Texas.
In another shocking development, Zuckerberg insinuated that the Biden administration had been directly responsible for pressuring Meta to implement censorship, which is effectively a violation of the First Amendment.
“By going after us and other American companies, it has emboldened other governments to go even further,” he said.
He went on to note that Meta would be working with President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to battle censorship from overseas.
“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more,” Zuckerberg said. “The U.S. has the strongest constitutional protections for free expression in the world.”
Mark Zuckerberg just announced that both FB and Meta will fire fact checkers and use a new community notes system like X instead.
He admits fact checkers are too politically biased and that he needs Trump’s help to stop other countries from censoring content.
Elon’s courage… pic.twitter.com/DPO0sohQfS
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) January 7, 2025
Social media users and commentators hesitantly celebrated Zuckerberg’s announcement, though they expressed skepticism about whether he would actually follow through with his plans and skepticism about his motivations — with many pointing out that it appeared more like rats fleeing a sinking ship than a sudden change of heart.