Meta announces big changes to content moderation policies

https://amzn.to/4dyFiAI

Transcript

00:00Meta is announcing major changes that it says will make Facebook, Instagram and Threads

00:05places where free speech thrives.

00:07So, here they are.

00:09First and foremost, Meta is ending its third-party fact-checking program in the United States,

00:14instead moving to a community notes program very similar to what you see on X right now.

00:20The company is lifting restrictions on certain topics like immigration, gender identity and

00:24trans issues and it's increasing political content for those users who want to see it.

00:31It's also moving its content moderation and safety teams from California to Texas to avoid

00:37political bias.

00:38In making these changes, Meta is acknowledging that too much harmless content has been censored

00:44using its automated systems.

00:46It says there was political bias through that fact-checking process.

00:50Now, it's not going to use those automated systems to monitor for all policy violations,

00:56but only to scan for illegal and what it considers to be high severity violations like terrorism,

01:02child sexual exploitation and scams.

01:05Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes in a video posted to Instagram Tuesday morning

01:11and in his first and only TV interview since taking the job, Meta's new head of global

01:16affairs, Joel Kaplan, blamed President Biden and his administration for trying to control

01:22content on social media.

01:25When you have a U.S. president administration that's pushing for censorship, it just makes

01:29it open season for other governments around the world that don't even have the protections

01:33of the First Amendment to really put pressure on U.S. companies, we're going to work with

01:37President Trump to push back on that kind of thing around the world.

01:40Meta also announced it's adding Dana White and two others to its board.

01:44The UFC CEO is a close friend of President-elect Trump, so with the addition of White and Kaplan

01:51plus these changes to content moderation, the company is clearly signaling a shift to

01:56more expression and less censorship on its platforms.

02:01In Washington, Grady Trimble, Fox Business.