On the face of it, it’s great news that Facebook has seen the light on free speech. And when Mark Zuckerberg made his big announcement in a video statement on Tuesday, he certainly made it sound as if he meant it.

“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression,” he nobly declared. Deploring progressives’ efforts to “shut down opinions [and] different ideas”, he promised to end oppressive “restrictions on topics like immigration and gender”, and fire “politically biased” fact-checkers. “Now we have the opportunity to restore free expression,” he concluded, “and I’m excited to take it.”