(Wall Street Journal) Social-media companies never wanted to aggressively police content on their platforms. Now, they are deciding they don’t have to anymore.
Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta META 2.20%increase; green up pointing triangle
Platforms will end fact-checking and remove speech restrictions across Facebook and Instagram shows how Donald Trump’s presidential election and the U.S. political winds that swept him into a second term have accelerated a move by social-media giants away from refereeing what is said on their platforms.
Trump ally Elon Musk led the charge starting in 2022, when he acquired the platform then known as Twitter and slashed content-policy jobs and loosened content restrictions. In 2023, YouTube and Meta halted policies that had curbed claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and Meta has cut spending on trust and safety efforts as part of Zuckerberg’s efforts to enhance efficiency.
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