Meta scraps fact-checking, brings back political content in latest Trump-friendly move

Meta on Tuesday announced it will eliminate its third-party fact-checking program to "restore free expression" and move to a "Community Notes" model, similar to the system that exists on Elon Musk's platform X.

The company said Community Notes will be written and rated by contributing users to provide more context to posts across its platforms, and the feature will roll out in the U.S. over the next couple of months. The announcement marks Meta's latest attempt to smooth over relations with Republican President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office.

"We've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes, and too much censorship," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Tuesday in a video announcement. "The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech, so we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our polices and restoring free expression on our platforms."

Zuckerberg said the third-party fact-checkers have been "too politically biased" and have "destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S."

Meta said it will simplify its content policies by removing restrictions on subjects like immigration and gender and implement a new approach to policy enforcement that will focus on illegal and high-severity violations. The company is moving its trust and safety and content moderation teams from California, a historically Democratic state, to Texas, a historically Republican state.

"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.

Trump praised Meta's announcement during a press conference on Tuesday. When asked