President Joe Biden spoke out against Meta, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, for changing its fact-checking system. He said this change is “completely contrary” to American values. Biden emphasized that telling the truth is very important.
Biden’s comments came after a letter from the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) warned that not having good fact-checking could lead to serious problems in other countries. These problems could be things like political chaos, violence, or even worse, such as genocide.
The IFCN disagreed with Meta’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who claimed that fact-checkers were too biased. They said this is not true and that fact-checkers have done a good job in the past.
In a recent interview, Zuckerberg argued that the old fact-checking program was not useful anymore and compared it to George Orwell’s book “1984,” suggesting it was too controlling. He also mentioned that the program made people lose trust, especially in the U.S.
The UN’s Volker Turk commented that controlling harmful content should not be seen as censorship and warned that ignoring this could have serious real-world consequences.
Meanwhile, Brazil has given Meta 72 hours to explain its new fact-checking policy. Brazilian Attorney General Jorge Messias said that if the company does not respond, they might take legal action.
Leave a Reply