X boss cheers Meta’s end to fact-checking, welcoming the Facebook owner ‘to the party’
The CEO of Elon Musk’s X says ‘legacy’ news media has become ‘almost a fan service’ as she welcomes Meta’s decision to call time on fact-checking.
Business
Don't miss out on the headlines from Business. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Linda Yaccarino, chief executive of Elon Musk’s X — formerly known as Twitter — has cheered Meta axing fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram and its other platforms.
At CES — the world’s biggest consumer electronics show in Las Vegas — Ms Yaccarino had a message for Meta CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg: “welcome to the party”.
The fact-checking program, which began in December 2016, will be replaced on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads by a “Community Notes” feature. An Australian academic criticised the move, saying “ordinary citizens should be very concerned”.
Zuckerberg likened the new system to what can be found on X, where users can add context to posts and vote on whether the information is helpful. The move aligns Meta more with Mr Musk, who is a close adviser and one of the biggest backers of US President-elect Donald Trump.
When asked about Mr Zuckerberg’s decision, Ms Yaccarino said: “How cool is that?”.
“I think it’s really exciting that when you think about Community Notes being good for the world, think about it as this global collective consciousness keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time.
“And it couldn’t be more validating than to see that Mark and Meta realised that, and when you think about Community Notes … that it’s the most effective, fastest fact checking without bias.
“It inspires great behaviour. Human behaviour is inspired because when a post is noted (it’s) dramatically shared less. So that’s the power of Community Notes and we say, Mark, Meta: welcome to the party”.
She also dismissed comments from Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre it was “worrying” Mr Musk was inserting himself into the politics of other countries.
Mr Musk has written social-media posts on European politics, including supporting a far-right party ahead of an election in Germany, accusing the British prime minister of being complicit in rape and criticising the European Commission.
“I don’t understand how that’s interfering in elections,” Ms Yaccarino said.
“There’s influential people all over the world stating their points of view. Publications either endorse or state their points of view all the time.”
In regard to Meta’s axing of fact-checking, Mr Zuckerberg justified the move as prioritising free speech, saying “governments and legacy media have pushed to censor more and more”.
Ms Yaccarino said the “future of news is not legacy media” and wanted X to provide a “place for journalistic curiosity to return”.
“When we look at the sad, challenged state of journalism today, when you think that journalism is just under pressure from financials, constant lay-offs, you’re reading about it today — the state of journalism today, in legacy media, we know the future of news is not legacy media.
“Legacy media, news has become almost like a fan service to make sure that you’re speaking to a niche audience to make your budget.
“What we want to do is make sure that we provide a great place for that journalistic curiosity to return. To make sure that there is a place for journalists to come, thrive and earn a great living. We have a great Creator revenue share program. We’re very generous.”
But, Monash University associate professor of news and political communication Emma Briant criticised Meta’s move to abandon fact checkers, saying anyone surprised by the decision “learned nothing from Mark Zuckerberg’s role in the Cambridge Analytica affair”.
Cambridge Analytica was a data firm which worked for Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and shut down following allegations about its misuse of Facebook data and the campaign tactics it pitched to clients.
“While they may pay lip service to the policy concerns of the moment, tech oligarchs run their companies to maximise profits and minimise costs, not to be society’s protector or mediate a neutral, democratic town hall,” Professor Briant said.
“This applies to all of them, not just Elon Musk. There is nothing to stop tech oligarchs weaponising their platforms to suit political objectives when the moment is right.
“Fact-checking is only one small part of the solution to the problem of contemporary propaganda. Policymakers often put too much faith in labelling false claims, and in so doing they miss an opportunity to take on the larger problems of a manipulative technology infrastructure hiding behind claims of neutrality and free speech.”
Professor Briant said Mr Trump had sent a “powerful message” across America’s wealthy right-wing elite — “now is your time, not theirs”.
“Clearly Mark Zuckerberg heard him loud and clear. Ordinary citizens should be very concerned.”
The author travelled to CES with assistance from Samsung, LG and Hisense.
Originally published as X boss cheers Meta’s end to fact-checking, welcoming the Facebook owner ‘to the party’
Aussie tech on show at CES
An Australian group has attracted millions in investment and another is partnering with a US airline. Here are the details on the Down Under tech on full display at the world’s biggest consumer electronics showcase.
‘Great science’ will lead pharma giants to Australia: Sanofi
The boss of French pharmaceuticals giant Sanofi is convinced the rest of the world will follow its lead to Australia to take advantage of our nation’s scientific expertise.