According to the report, Meta employees are pushing the company to eliminate third-party fact checkers and add pro-Trump voices to its board of directors, including Ultimate Fighting Championship head Dana White. The decision was strongly criticized.
Employees at the Silicon Valley giant took to internal messaging forums to vent their frustrations Tuesday after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta Inc. would lift restrictions on freedom of expression on controversial hot topics. Ta.
Zuckerberg, who admitted to engaging in “excessive censorship” while wearing a $900,000 Swiss watch, said discussions about sensitive subjects such as immigration and gender should not be discussed on Meta's major platforms such as Facebook, Instragram and Threads. It said it would no longer be subject to strict content moderation rules. .
One Mehta employee wrote on a workplace chat forum that she was “very concerned” about the move, saying that Mehta “sends a bigger and stronger message to people that facts no longer matter, and that they are subverting it to freedom of speech.” “I think people are confusing it with the victory of ”
Another employee wrote, “Simply absolving them of their obligation to at least try to create a safe and appropriate platform is a really sad direction.” According to CNBC. Yet another worried that the changes would lead to an “influx of racist and transphobic content” across the Meta platform.
But other employees praised the move. One worker wrote that adopting the “community notes” model used by Elon Musk's X “proved to better represent the truth on the ground.”
Another employee suggested that the company “provide an explanation for the early worst outcomes,” initially asking management to hire third-party fact-checkers and asking if new policies would prevent the same type of impact from happening again. I asked you to please.
Mehta management also removed internal employee criticism of Zuckerberg's decision to add White to the board. According to 404 Media's newsletter.
“Major W,” one Meta employee sarcastically wrote on Workplace. Another said: “We're hiring Connor.” [Conor McGregor] Is sparring after work next? ”
Another employee wrote: “Joe Rogan could be next.” When the employee heard this, he replied, “I laughed.”
According to 404 Media, Meta's “internal community relations team” removed a post criticizing White for violating the “community engagement expectations” that govern the workplace.
Meanwhile, fact-checking partners at Part 3 said they were “blindsided” by Zuckerberg's decision.
“We heard the news just like everyone else,” said Alan Duke, co-founder and editor-in-chief of fact-checking site Lead Stories, which began working with Meta in 2019. He says this. he 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 newsroom has a staff of 10 and has been working with Mehta since 2019.
“This was totally unexpected and out of the box for us. We had no idea this decision was being considered until Mark deleted the video overnight,” Stiller said. “I have no idea what the future holds for this website,” he added.
The partnership with Meta was an important source of revenue for the media organization.
“The most painful part of this is the loss of a very talented and experienced journalist who will no longer be paid to investigate the false claims found on the Meta platform,” Duke told Wired. told.
Duke was furious at Zuckerberg's suggestion that third-party fact checkers have a liberal bias.
“Let me confirm the facts: Lead Stories adheres to the highest standards of journalism and ethics as required by the International Fact-Checking Network's Code of Principles,” he said. “We fact-check false claims regardless of where on the political spectrum they originate.”
Kristin Roberts, Gannett Media's chief content officer, also criticized the move. USA Today, a subsidiary of Gannett, was also a fact-checking partner for Meta.
“Fact-based journalism is what USA Today does best,” Roberts said in an emailed statement to Wired.
“Truth and facts serve everyone, not right or left, and that is what we will continue to provide.”
The Post has reached out to Mehta for comment.
