This 180-degree change is in response to Donald Trump’s imminent second presidential term and competitive approaches, such as X’s Community Notes. Meta has decided not to invest any more money in its system. Now, we hope that Facebook and Instagram users themselves will decide what content is disinformation or not.
In a statement where Zuckerberg announced that he would disband the program, he said that the fact-checkers were overcome by political bias, which destroyed more trust than they had in the US. However, for Laura Zommer, former director of Chequeado (one of the most important Spanish-speaking verification organizations) and LatamChequea, and now leader of Factchequeado (verification media aimed at the Latino community in the US), Zuckerberg’s statements are not a surprise. , and has no scientific evidence for what he claims. Zommer says: “Far from fact-checking, fact-checkers add context. “We never encourage the removal of content.
Zommer, who doubts how dismantling the program could benefit Meta, insists that the company is contradicting itself by ending the fact-checking program, mainly because it has highlighted its positive results in the past. Zommer also agrees with Angie Drobnic Holan, the current director of the IFCN, who wrote on the LinkedIn page: “It is unfortunate that this decision comes after a lot of political pressure from the new administration and its supporters. The Factcheckers did not take sides with the new government. Their work – each the line of attack comes from those who feel they should be able to exaggerate and lie without being challenged or contradicted.”
As Trump, a few days before his inauguration, threatens to deport more migrants, the Spanish public is facing a new wave of disinformation. “The evidence makes us think that this will be bad. Until it is done we will see, but we can say that, during the Trump campaign, one of the main disinformation stories was against immigrants, like those who said that immigrants will commit fraud. That was false. The old data makes us think that this decision may affect Latino communities in the US,” Zommer told WIRED en Español.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is not the only thing that endangers the ecosystem. In an era where serious video and audio scams are spreading, having effective information will be a priority.
Fact-Checking Spanish-Speaking Media is at Risk
Latin America’s media ecosystem, and its economic vulnerability, is at risk. “The payments for Facebook’s fact-checking programs were still keeping fact-checking organizations and news organizations with a fact-checking section. So I think that, probably, if these organizations can’t diversify soon, many of them will disappear,” said Pablo Medina, disinformation research editor at Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism, CLIP.
Although the decision only applies in the US for now, the disappearance of the project has raised alarm in the Hispanic media ecosystem. “The attack by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on what he calls the ‘secret courts’ that encourage platform censorship in Latin America – a false claim – shows that Brazil is very focused on the company’s problems,” said Tai Nalon, CEO of Aos Fatos , one of the most important fact-checking media in the global south.
“This is completely consistent with the rhetoric of Donald Trump, a typical oppressor of journalism and fact-checking,” Nalon said. “The arguments used by Zuckerberg have been widely exploited by the fringes around the world to provide effective measures against falsehood. . Since there has never been dissatisfaction with the work of fact-checkers before, this seems to me to be a move aimed at some political gain. We know that Meta is facing antitrust charges in the US, and being close to the government can be it’s a benefit to the company.”
Meanwhile, as Laura Zommer points out, the evidence of the past gives the news ecosystem cause for concern.
WIRED en español contacted Meta about this story. Through a press representative, the company responded with a statement (in Spanish) of the decision and said that this does not apply to WhatsApp and is only for American users.
This story originally appeared on WIRED en Español and has been translated from Spanish.
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