Facebook’s new guidelines, censorship are drawing mixed reactions from Americans

Americans had mixed reactions to Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking program this week, with some telling Fox News Digital that the move was concerning.

“Free speech should be absolute,” one respondent told Fox News Digital in Texas. “I don’t think anyone has the authority to spy on anyone.”

Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, announced on Wednesday that it would end its fact-checking system and remove restrictions on speech to “restore free speech” across Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platforms, admitting that its current content moderation processes are “excessive .” Zuckerberg said the new Meta system will be similar to Elon Musk’s Community Notes on X.

“I like the fact of getting rid of the fact checkers. The fact checkers weren’t doing a lot of fact checking, just whoever paid to check the fact,” Rudy told Fox News Digital. “It sounds to me like they can’t be trusted. It’s the same thing, knock me down, it’s too late to do that. But I think it’s better than what they had.”

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Some Americans told Fox News Digital that the announcement was disappointing.

“That’s disappointing to me, because you want all of your social media to be as fact-checked as possible to get accurate information. I’m really concerned that Facebook might not be able to, you know, go through that fact-checking process, as it should, I believe,” Greg told Fox News Digital. .

Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was launched after the 2016 election and was used to “manage content” and misinformation on social media, mostly due to “political pressure,” executives said, but acknowledged the program “has gone too far.”

Many people told Fox News Digital that they hadn’t heard about Meta’s announcement.

Facebook app on smartphone. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

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“Honestly, a few years ago, I probably would have said, ‘Well, it’s a private company. They have the right to do what they want and people have to use their brains to figure out what’s right and wrong, what’s the truth. . .’ But, I’m a psychology student, and I started to realize that people don’t always think for themselves, so maybe they need someone else to check the truth for them,” Melissa said.

Fox News Digital also asked Texas residents about Zuckerberg moving a Meta content moderation team to their state.

“Yes, we will give them a chance and see what the result is,” said Greg. “I got rid of all my social media, you know, because it wasn’t fact-checked and it wasn’t policed ​​the way I believe it should be.”

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Another Texan, Madeline, told Fox News Digital that Zuckerberg may have moved to Texas because businesses “operate more easily” in the state and questioned his reason for moving operations to California.

Elizabeth Heckman reported from Texas.

Brooke Singman of Fox News contributed to this report.