Meta: Censorship and fact-checking are out, ‘free speech’ is in

Straight out of the blocks of 2025, and on the eve of the inauguration of President Trump, Mark Zuckerburg this week announced the most significant changes to the content moderation policies of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, since the aftermath of the 2016 US election. 

Announced in an Instagram reel, these changes include ending its fact-checking program, which funds third-party organisations to check claims in viral Facebook and Instagram posts, and downrank them if they contain false information. This will be replaced with a copy of ‘Community Notes’, X’s volunteer face-checking program. 

Facebook will also remove restrictions on some forms of speech which were previously considered harmful by Meta, such as criticisms of immigrants, women and transgender people.

Another key change will be tweaking its moderation systems so that it prioritises high-severity violations of its content policy, such as those involving drugs and terrorism, and only reviewing lower severity violations when they are reported by users.

This move has already riled up none other than the co-chair of Meta’s own oversight board, who has said she is ‘very concerned’ with Meta’s decision, and that there were ‘huge problems’ with what had been announced, including the potential impact on the LGBTQ+ community, as well as on gender and trans rights.

The transition to community moderation will have implications for how brands engage on the platform. Businesses will now have to consider developing internal protocols to verify the accuracy and appropriateness of their content, meaning greater self-regulation and accountability. 

These changes could open the door for misinformation to spread, which could further affect ad performance and brand’s reputations across Facebook.

Meta’s movements follow in the footsteps of X’s, which provide ominous foreshadowing. After Musk cut content moderation staff following his acquisition of then-Twitter, misinformation content spread as did graphic content, and brands fled the platform by pulling ad-spend. At least 50 of the top 100 US advertisers have ceased their ad spending on the platform since the acquisition, and X’s ad revenue has declined by around 60%. 

Despite this, many marketeers believe there will not be as big a backlash from advertisers as there was with X. Given Facebook’s enormous reach, with its 3.07bn monthly users worldwide in comparison to Twitter’s c. 500m monthly users, top brands are not likely to pull their spend at this stage given this unrivalled access to potential customers.

Looking ahead, these changes mean a reduction in the number of content takedowns, a return of political content, and more controversial content on the platform. Facebook truly has entered its Trump-friendly era.