Zuckerberg’s censorship claim ‘false’: International Fact-Checking Network

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that the fact-checking programme on Facebook and Instagram has veered into censorship is “false”, the International Fact-Checking Network said Thursday.

“This is false, and we want to set the record straight, both for today’s context and for the historical record,” said the global network of fact-checking organisations, including AFP, after Zuckerberg announced an end to Meta’s US programme.

In announcing the significant rollback of Meta’s content moderation policies on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said the programme had made “too many mistakes and too much censorship”.

While Meta’s decision to scrap fact-check operations currently only applies to the United States, the International Fact-Checking Network warned of the potentially devastating impact if the group were to end its worldwide programmes covering more than 100 countries.

“Some of these countries are highly vulnerable to misinformation that spurs political instability, election interference, mob violence and even genocide,” the network said.

“If Meta decides to stop the programme worldwide, it is almost certain to result in real-world harm in many places,” it added.

AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook’s fact-checking programme, in which Facebook pays to use fact-checks from around 80 organisations globally on its platform, WhatsApp and Instagram.

In that programme, content rated “false” is downgraded in news feeds so fewer people will see it and if someone tries to share that post, they are presented with an article explaining why it is misleading.