Writes: Alban Zeneli
The largest social media company, Meta, has decided to no longer cooperate with fact-checking organizations around the world. Instead, their work will be replaced with 'community notifications', where people from all over the world will comment on content circulating on the platforms.
In the announcement made public by Mark Zuckerberg, four other steps were also presented in this direction. He stated that content policies will be simplified, applying fewer rules. In addition, Meta will adopt a new approach to implementing these policies, setting up filters that will focus only on illegal content and serious violations — but these will be reviewed only after complaints are filed.
Another point Zuckerberg made was that the content that circulates most on Meta's platforms will be more oriented towards citizen (user) content, but not avoiding political content. He also announced a physical move of the trust, safety, and content moderation teams within the company.
What does this mean for social media and for truth?
To date, Facebook and other Meta platforms have aimed to provide fact-based information through fact-checkers around the world. These organizations have vetted and flagged content that contains inaccurate information, helping to correct errors and present the truth to users.
So, up until this point, truth has been one of the main goals of these platforms.
However, with the announcement of new policies by Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, truth is no longer the primary objective.
Now, truth is no longer determined by facts, but by the plurality and quantity of opinions on an issue.
Figuratively speaking, the exclusion of fact-checkers from Meta's platforms is like an explosion of truth into fragments — incomprehensible to the public. It's like the explosion of a grenade, the fragments of which can never be reassembled to make the truth-granting.
We are probably officially entering the peak of the post-truth era, which D'Ancona has named 'post-truth'.
(Alban Zeneli is a lecturer at the Department of Journalism, Faculty of Philology at the University of Pristina. He is also the author of many scientific publications in prestigious international journals. Zeneli is a regular columnist at hibrid.info).