Mark Zuckerberg has announced that he will effectively discontinue current measures to combat misinformation on Facebook and Instagram. The door is wide open for hate speech and lies.
With his announcement that he no longer wants to check the truth of posts on his social networks, Zuckerberg is doing nothing other than kowtowling to Donald Trump. Because he is panting after Elon Musk.
He had thrown out fact checkers on a large scale when he took over Twitter, and since then there has hardly been any control there. By renaming it to It can be wildly claimed that migrants eat pets. The medieval tale of the well poisoners is not far away.
And now Zuckerberg is following suit. With language that makes it clear where the Facebook founder is slipping. Governments and “old media” have been responsible for people being “censored” for too long. He finally wants to “restore freedom of expression.”
Zuckerberg leaves out the fact that fact checkers care about facts, i.e. about comparing claims with reality. Instead, he claims they are not politically neutral. He doesn’t seem to care much about the fact that reputable media distinguish between opinion and report.
You don’t need much imagination to imagine what will follow. Especially during election campaigns, lies and hate speech will now spread even more unhindered on the meta-platforms. The previous control mechanisms were already inadequate. Russia’s secret services will attempt to influence public opinion in Western countries on an even larger scale using social media. Unwelcome people will be discredited by troll armies.
But why is Zuckerberg making this U-turn? In 2016, Facebook’s parent company Meta still had the motto: Fake news should not influence elections. Trump even declared Facebook an “enemy of the people” during the US election campaign. And now Zuckerberg is offering the future US president and his supporters another stage. It seems as if someone is afraid of being left behind. Musk celebrates with Trump, advises him, influences him. And Zuckerberg? He hasn’t played a role in the power game in recent months. He is now trying to find it by kneeling down.
It is not yet clear whether Meta’s rule change applies only to the USA or worldwide. In Europe, the DSA (Digital Services Act) applies, which requires Meta to prove that it deletes illegal content. The work of fact checkers is actually absolutely necessary here. Zuckerberg may also accept penalties. For Europe and Germany, Meta’s turn to a barely controlled content slingshot would not only mean dirty election campaigns, but probably also more work for crime fighters. If Holocaust deniers, slanderers and agitators on Facebook etc. can spread their theses unhindered, then the public prosecutor’s offices will have even more to do. And the old debate about who is responsible for the content on social networks will be reignited.