Trump’s return sees social media giant change course on censorship

Social media firm Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is making concessions ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office by doing away with its fact-checking program and reduced regulation of discussions around certain topics. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.” He observed that the result of the recent election “feel[s] like a cultural tipping point, towards once again prioritizing speech.” Meta has said it will cease proactively seeking out most violations of its rules and will instead focus its automated systems on “high-severity violations.”