Meta to end fact-checking, replacing it with system similar to Musk's X

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday said the social media company is ending its fact-checking program and replacing it with a community-driven system similar to that of Elon Musk's X

Zuckerberg cited the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election as underlying the decision, calling it a "cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech." Zuckerberg made the announcement in a video. "We're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.

The changes will impact Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram — which have billions of users — as well as Threads.

The systems put in place to moderate its platforms make too many mistakes, Zuckerberg stated. 

Meta introduced its fact-checking program in 2016 as part of an effort to curb misinformation. The initiative was launched in response to criticism over Facebook's role in spreading false claims during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. A 2023 statement from Meta said the fact-checking program had "expanded to include nearly 100 organizations working in more than 60 languages globally

Meta does plan to continue to moderate content related to drugs, terrorism, child exploitation, frauds and scams, Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer and Clegg's successor, wrote in a statement on the Meta site. Facebook's trust and safety content moderation team is also moving from California to Texas and other U.S. locations, according to the note

Kaplan also said entrusting users to effectively moderate Meta's social media platforms should benefit its content. 

"We've seen this approach work on X — where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see," he wrote. "We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they're seeing — and one that's less prone to bias."

Meta said it would roll out its Community Notes approach over the next two month and continue refining it over the rest of the year. That will include no longer demoting content that users have fact-checked and including what Kaplan called "a much less obtrusive label" pointing people to additional informatio

Appeals court rejects Trump’s latest attempt to delay hush money sentencing

ANew York appeals court judge has denied US President-elect Donald Trump’s latest bid to delay this week’s sentencing in his hush money case.

In a one-sentence ruling following an emergency hearing, Judge Ellen Gesmer denied Mr Trump’s request for an immediate order that would spare him from being sentenced while he appeals against Judge Juan M Merchan’s decision last week to uphold the historic verdict.

It was the second time in two days that Mr Trump was denied.

Mr Trump went to the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court a day after Judge Merchan rebuffed his initial bid to indefinitely postpone sentencing.

Mr Trump’s sentencing remains on schedule for Friday, though he can still ask other courts to intervene.

At an emergency hearing, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued that Mr Trump cannot be sentenced because, as president-elect, he enjoys the same immunity from criminal proceedings as a president.

Judge Merchan had rejected that idea in his ruling last week and Steven Wu, arguing for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said it flew in the face of the long-held concept of one president at a time.

Asked by Judge Gesmer if he could cite anything to support his position, Mr Blanche said: “There’s never been a case like this before.”

But, citing a longstanding Justice Department memorandum on presidential immunity, Mr Blanche said “everybody agrees that President Trump is entitled to complete immunity from any criminal process” once he takes office.

Mr Trump did not attend the hearing.

Mr Trump, less than two weeks from his inauguration, is poised to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes. If his sentencing does not happen before his second term starts January 20, presidential immunity could put it on hold until he leaves office.