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January 7, 2025

Meta to End Fact-Checking Program in Shift Ahead of Trump Term

The social networking giant will stop using third-party fact-checkers on Facebook, Threads and Instagram and instead rely on users to add notes to posts.

It is likely to please President-elect Trump and his allies.

• https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/07/business/meta-fact-checking?unlocked_article_code=1.nU4.F51z.ummudnnTmVst&smid=url-share

• https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/

Meta ends fact checks, will adopt X-style ‘community notes’ in Trump era

• https://wapo.st/4h223hP

• https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/7/24338127/meta-end-fact-checking-misinformation-zuckerberg

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The reaction of PolitFact, an initiative of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the International Fact Checking Network (IFCN) who've led fact-checking in journalism, was to explain basics of getting accurate information to readers and users of online and other publications.

Poynter president Neil Brown explained in a statement that "Meta has always set its own tools and rules, while Poynter’s PolitiFact and Meta’s other fact-checking partners offered independent reviews and showed their sources."

Neil Brown: “To blame fact-checkers is a disappointing cop-out and it perpetuates a misunderstanding of its own program. Facts are not censorship. Fact-checkers never censored anything. And Meta always held the cards. It's time to quit invoking inflammatory and false language in describing the role of journalists and fact-checking.”

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More on Fact Checking @GreenPolicy370 - "Facts Count":

• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/Fact_Checking,_Facts_Count
• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/Fact_Checking
• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/Disinformation_-_Online_-_Dangerous
• https://greenpolicy360.net/w/In_Defense_of_Democracy_and_Freedom

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