Long gone are the days when tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg were constantly at each other’s throats, and there was even talk of a ‘cage fight’ to resolve their rivalry by exchanging blows.
Now, with Donald J. Trump 2.0 about to be inaugurated, there is an unprecedented amount of convergence between the two social media giants.
It arises today that X owner Musk ‘gave a nod’ to Mark Zuckerberg as the Meta CEO followed his lead in getting rid of fact-checking on his social media platforms.
Fox News reported:
“In reaction to news of Zuckerberg’s pledge to “restore” free speech to Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platforms by getting rid of fact-checkers and replacing them with “Community Notes” similar to what Musk did on X, Musk replied, “This is cool.”
X CEO Linda Yaccarino celebrated Zuckerberg’s move, too, writing on X that Community Notes has been ‘profoundly successful while keeping freedom of speech sacred. […] It’s a smart move by Zuck and something I expect other platforms will follow now that X has shown how powerful it is. Bravo!’”
Meta is scrapping the fact-checking program, and also removing restrictions on speech to ‘restore free expression’, admitting moderation (censorship) practices have ‘gone too far’.
“In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, President-elect Donald Trump said he thinks Meta’s ‘presentation was excellent. They have come a long way’, Trump said.
Trump’s comments come after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a video Tuesday morning, saying his company is ‘going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms’.”
The third-party fact-checking program was implemented due to ‘political pressure’, Meta executives said.
Meta Chief Global Policy Director Joel Kaplan:
”Moderation rules are ‘too restrictive and not allowing enough discourse around sensitive topics like immigration, trans issues and gender. […] We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression. […] It gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on.”
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