According to a report, Meta employees criticized the company’s decision to ditch third-party fact-checkers and add pro-Trump voices, including Ultimate Fighting Championship head Dana White, to its board of directors.
Workers at the Silicon Valley giant expressed their displeasure on the company’s internal messaging forum on Tuesday in response to CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta will lift restrictions on free expression when it comes to controversial and hot topics.
Zuckerberg, who wore a $900,000 Swiss watch while admitting to engaging in “a lot of censorship”, said discussions about sensitive topics such as immigration and gender would no longer be subject to strict content moderation rules on major platforms. Meta-s, including Facebook, Instragram and Threads. .
A Meta employee wrote on the Workplace chat forum that they were “extremely concerned” about the move, which they attributed to Meta “sending a bigger and stronger message to people that facts no longer matter and combining it with a victory for free speech.”
Another employee wrote that “simply being relieved of the task of at least trying to create a safe and relevant platform is a really sad direction to take,” according to CNBC. Another feared the change would lead to a “flood of racist and transphobic content” across Meta platforms.
Other employees, however, appreciated the move. One worker wrote that adopting the “Community Notes” model used by Elon Musk’s X “has proven to be a much better representation of the ground truth.”
Another employee suggested that the company “provide an accounting of the worst results of the early years,” which initially prompted management to hire third-party fact-checkers, and whether the new policies would prevent the same kind of fallout from occurring. was repeated.
Meta management also brushed off internal employee criticism of Zuckerberg’s decision to add White to the board of directors, according to the 404 Media newsletter.
“Major W,” a Meta employee wrote sarcastically on Workplace. Another quipped: “We hire Connor [Conor McGregor] after sparring work?”
“Joe Rogan could be next,” wrote another staffer. This prompted one worker to reply: “LOL.”
Meta’s “Internal Community Relations Team” deleted the posts critical of White, saying they violated the “Community Engagement Expectations” that govern the workplace, according to 404 Media.
Meanwhile, the third party’s fact-checking partners said they were “blindsided” by Zuckerberg’s decision.
“We heard the news just like everyone else,” Alan Duke, co-founder and editor-in-chief of fact-checking site Lead Stories, who began working with Meta in 2019, told technology publication Wired on Tuesday.
“No advance notice.”
Jesse Stiller, editor-in-chief of Check Your Fact, told Wired: “We were blindsided by this.” His editorial staff, which consists of 10 people, has been working with Meta since 2019.
“This was completely unexpected and out of left field for us. We didn’t know this decision was being considered until Mark dropped the video overnight,” Stiller said, adding, “We have no idea what the future looks like for the website going forward.”
The partnership with Meta was a key source of revenue for media organizations.
“The most painful part of this is the loss of some very good, experienced journalists who will no longer be paid to investigate the false claims found on the Meta platforms,” Duke told Wired.
Duke took umbrage at Zuckerberg’s suggestion that third-party fact-checkers had a liberal bias.
“Let me check it out. “Lead Stories follows the highest standards of journalism and ethics required by the International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles,” he said. “We fact-check regardless of where on the political spectrum a false claim originates.”
Kristin Roberts, chief content officer at Gannett Media, also criticized the move. USA Today, a Gannett affiliate, was another fact-checking partner of Meta.
“Fact-based journalism is what USA Today does best,” Roberts said in an emailed statement to Wired.
“Truth and facts serve everyone – not the right or the left – and that’s what we will continue to deliver.”
The post has requested a comment from Meta.
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