Why Facebook ending fact checking in US is a warning sign for India

On Tuesday, social media giant Meta announced that starting with the US, it will end its third-party fact-checking programme. Under this initiative, 90 organisations across 130 countries partnered with Meta to flag misinformation on its platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

The technology company had started the programme in 2016. It will now switch to a crowdsourced fact-checking model like X’s Community Notes. This system allows users to suggest clarifications that are displayed next to posts they perceive to be misleading.

Even as the shift has only been announced for the US for now, social media policy experts told Scroll that the decision is likely to be rolled out in countries too. In the US, experts said that the move was aimed at improving relations with US President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office later this month. Trump has frequently made untruthful or misleading assertions.

The pandering to power raises questions for a country like India where the government has been aggressive in taking down critical voices on social media.

How will the changes in Meta policy work?

Under the existing system, Meta reduces the visibility and reach of a post if it agrees with its partner fact checkers on the information being misleading or false. In addition, a label is added to the post that…

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