In a bold policy shift, Meta announced in January 2025—days before Donald Trump’s second U.S. presidential inauguration—that it would terminate its third-party fact-checking program across its platforms, starting with the U.S. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian hailed the move as “very pragmatic” during a CNBC interview at the Web Summit in Qatar on February 23, 2025, arguing it unwinds an unworkable system. Replacing it, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a community-driven moderation model, sparking a debate about the future of misinformation online. Here’s what this change entails and why it’s resonating across the tech sphere.
Meta’s Policy Overhaul: From Fact-Checkers to Community Notes
Launched in 2016, Meta’s global fact-checking initiative partnered with over 100 organizations to curb misinformation on Facebook and Instagram. Frequently criticized by Trump and conservatives for allegedly skewing against right-wing content, the program faced mounting pressure. Just ahead of Trump’s January 20, 2025, swearing-in, Meta pulled the plug, with Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer, announcing a shift to a “Community Notes” system. “We’re moving away from third-party fact-checking to empower our community to flag misleading posts,” Kaplan wrote, citing X’s success with a similar approach.
Ohanian, who co-founded Reddit in 2005, endorsed the rollback. “It’s impossible to do fact-checking at scale, let alone in real-time,” he told CNBC, calling the original program “a bad idea from the start because it was untenable.” Meta’s new model aims to personalize political content, letting users opt into more if desired while leaning on diverse user input to contextualize posts—a nod to free expression over centralized control.
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A Broader Trend: DEI and Censorship in the Spotlight
Meta’s decision aligns with a wave of corporate retreats from diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs following Trump’s inauguration. Companies like Apple have faced shareholder battles over DEI, while Meta’s move coincides with Zuckerberg’s recent congressional mea culpa. In a letter, he expressed regret over yielding to Biden-era pressure to censor COVID-19 content, framing the fact-checking rollback as a step toward neutrality. Kaplan, a Republican who succeeded Nick Clegg, emphasized, “Our platforms are built for free expression—messy as that can be.”
This shift mirrors X’s community-driven ethos under Elon Musk, where users collaboratively annotate misleading posts. Kaplan praised X’s model, noting its ability to balance perspectives without top-down bias—a contrast to Meta’s previous reliance on external arbiters.
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Ohanian’s Take: Algorithms and the User Choice Future
Ohanian, whose Reddit pioneered social networking before MySpace faded, sees this as part of a larger evolution. “We’ll get to a place where users choose their algorithms,” he predicted, arguing that platforms are incentivized to optimize engagement—not for sinister reasons but to retain users. Reddit, now boasting 70 million daily active users since its $6.4 billion IPO in March 2024, has grappled with moderation itself, banning revenge porn and tightening rules on racism and misogyny. Its “community-specific rules” across subreddits offer a decentralized playbook from which Meta may draw.
For Ohanian, Meta’s pivot is less a capitulation than a recognition of scale limits. “They’re winding back something that couldn’t work,” he said, suggesting community-based systems better reflect the chaotic vitality of online discourse.
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What’s Next for Meta and Social Media?
Meta’s U.S.-focused rollback leaves its global program intact—for now—but sets a precedent. Critics warn that prioritizing engagement over verification could amplify misinformation, especially with billions voicing the “good, bad, and ugly,” as Kaplan put it. Supporters, including free speech advocates, hail it as a return to platform neutrality, unshackling expression from editorial overreach.
As Meta navigates this transition, the tech world watches. Will community notes curb falsehoods effectively or merely shift the burden to users? Ohanian’s pragmatic lens suggests the latter may be inevitable—and preferable. What’s your stance on Meta’s new direction? Weigh in below.
