Mark Zuckerberg says time to ‘get back to our roots’ around free expression but opponents argue ‘ordinary citizens should be very concerned’
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Australian politicians and experts have expressed concern over Meta’s decision to abandon factchecking on its platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, saying the move would “turbocharge” the spread of lies and hate speech around the world.
Meta’s billionaire founder, Mark Zuckerberg, announced overnight Australia-time that the company’s factchecking programs would be scrapped. In a video message, Zuckerberg vowed to prioritise free speech after the return of Donald Trump to the White House and said that, starting in the US, he would “get rid of factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X”.