Just a few years ago, I was working as a software engineer at Facebook on its now-infamous “fact-checking” team. At the time and in the years since, I have pointed out the obvious: While the idea of fact-checking is a good one, since more information is always better than less information, social media platforms handing power over content to biased fact-checkers has been a monumental miscalculation that has not only helped swing elections against Republican candidates, but damaged trust in social media institutions.
There is nothing wrong with the truth, but there is everything wrong with handing politically motivated actors control over what is and is not true.
Social media — including Facebook, Instagram, and now Threads — was once a force for good in the context of the internet’s original purpose: a decentralized environment that enables and protects the ability to speak your mind freely. But in reality, as the power of the internet grew, so did the greed and envy of those who seek nothing but power: our political elite.
Their rage was clear in the aftermath of the 2016 election when Donald Trump dared to leverage the power of the internet on his way to victory over Hillary Clinton. So, in partnership with the countless Democrats who make up the bulk of policy-motivated workers in Silicon Valley, the Democratic Party came down on Big Tech like a ton of bricks, essentially strong-arming the entire industry into becoming a propaganda wing of the political Left. Of course, the vast majority were far too happy to oblige.
The result? Big Tech was a central pillar in President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, and it has continued to act as the Democratic Party’s internet-based police force.
But on Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta and founder of Facebook, announced what could be a generational change in policy that, if true, we should all celebrate.
In a video posted to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, Zuckerberg announced fundamental policy changes that included ending their third-party fact-checking program and replacing it with a “Community Notes” model, allowing more speech by lifting restrictions on mainstream topics of debate, focusing enforcement on illegal and high-severity content, and allowing a personalized approach to political content that allows people to engage in debate.
Look, we shouldn’t be naive here and ignore that this announcement comes in the immediate aftermath of Trump’s election to the White House, as well as the success of Elon Musk’s X platform — a close rival of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
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Would Zuckerberg have made these changes if Vice President Kamala Harris had won? Probably not. But nonetheless, we must celebrate this announcement, not just because it represents a pivotal shift in Big Tech’s attitude toward freedom of speech but because it also included a direct indictment of the American Left’s influence on political speech online and a call to combat attacks on free speech across the world.
Make no mistake: The fight for freedom of speech is far from over. But with the CEO of several of the world’s biggest social media platforms openly aligning with President-elect Donald Trump on freedom of speech, something that was unimaginable just a few years ago, the future looks bright … as long as we keep fighting.
Ian Haworth is a columnist, speaker, and podcast host. You can find him on Substack and follow him on X at @ighaworth.