The looming second Trump administration is ushering in a new era in social media that sweeps aside censorship policies pushed by the Biden administration in favor of freewheeling community editing favored by Mr. Trump’s sidekick, Elon Musk.
Less than two weeks ahead of Mr. Trump’s inauguration, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced he’s scrapping hired fact-checkers on his Facebook and Instagram platforms and will leave it to users to add information and context.
Mr. Zuckerberg explained the change in a video announcement Tuesday, calling the November election that swept in Mr. Trump and a GOP congress “a cultural tipping point toward once again prioritizing speech.”
The switch follows years of criticism and investigations into Big Tech censorship by Republican lawmakers, who now control both chambers of Congress. It also comes after complaints about censorship and content restrictions from Mr. Trump, who was once banned from Facebook and is set to begin his second presidential term in two weeks.
“I think they’ve come a long way,” Mr. Trump said Monday when asked about Mr. Zuckerberg’s announcement. The president-elect acknowledged his past threats against Facebook over censorship and bias against conservative political speech.
In March, Mr. Trump labeled Facebook “an enemy of the people,” causing the company stock to plummet.
In his book, “Save America,” released in September, Mr. Trump accused Mr. Zuckerberg of meddling in the 2020 election, a reference to the hundreds of millions of dollars in “Zuckbucks” spent on getting out the vote that critics say benefited Democrats.
“We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Mr. Trump said Monday his threats “probably,” influenced Mr. Zuckerberg’s decision to banish Facebook fact checkers.
Facebook will mirror X in allowing other users to fact-check or moderate content using community notes. The policy was created by Mr. Musk when he purchased X and took over the platform in 2022.
Mr. Zuckerberg announced other changes meant to enhance free speech on the platform, including the removal of restrictions on hot-button topics such as illegal immigration and transgender issues.
“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.
The company, he said, will return to its roots “and focus on reducing our mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Facebook was among the major platforms harassed by President Biden’s top aides to censor content related to COVID-19 and politics.
In an August letter sent to the House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Zuckerberg exposed the administration’s coercion strategy, including FBI efforts to persuade social media platforms to suppress the story about the politically damning contents of the discarded laptop computer once owned by President Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
Because of the FBI warnings, he said, Facebook moved to “temporarily demote” a New York Post article about the laptop’s contents, which the newspaper published days before the 2020 presidential election.
Biden officials aggressively pushed social media platforms to squelch COVID-19 content, Mr. Zuckerberg said in the letter.
Mr. Biden infuriated Facebook executives in July 2021 when he declared that social media platforms, including Facebook, were “killing people” by allowing “outrageous misinformation” about the virus and vaccines on their platforms.
Meta Global Affairs President Nick Clegg called the White House “cynical and dishonest” in an email sent that day and released later by House investigators.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, who has pushed to expose social media censorship, called Mr. Zuckerberg’s Tuesday announcement “a huge step in the right direction.”
Mr. Clegg, a British liberal and former deputy prime minister, has since left the company. His departure is part of the Facebook transformation away from censorship of free speech, said Dan Schneider, vice president at the conservative watchdog Media Research Center.
Mr. Clegg’s replacement is Joel Kaplan, a former senior adviser to George W. Bush.
“Kaplan is an American who has long fought for constitutional principles, who I think has always been uncomfortable with Facebook’s censorship program,” Mr. Schneider said.
Mr. Schneider does not expect fellow Big Tech giant Google to follow Mr. Zuckerberg’s effort to enhance free speech on the site. Google and its subsidiary YouTube have been accused of censoring conservative content. Google employees also donated overwhelmingly to the campaign of Kamala Harris.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for a comment about the Facebook changes.
Mr. Zuckerberg’s eagerness to work with the Trump administration to lift social media censorship is a dramatic reversal of the acrimonious relationship between the company and Mr. Trump during his first term. Facebook banned Mr. Trump from the platform for two years, beginning after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, which many initially blamed on Mr. Trump.
Now Mr. Trump’s staunch ally, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White, will join the 13-member Meta board, Mr. Zuckerberg, a mixed-martial arts fan, announced Monday.
“We have massive opportunities ahead in AI, wearables, and the future of social media, and our board will help us achieve our vision,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.