Biden attacks Meta’s fact-checking U-turn

The outgoing US president called the move “really shameful” and “contrary to American justice”

US President Joe Biden has attacked Meta for dropping its controversial third-party fact-checking program, stating the move was “completely contrary to what America is about.”

The president addressed the development on Friday during a rare Q&A session with reporters at the White House. He sharply criticized Mark Zuckerberg’s company, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads for the move. 

“The whole idea of walking away from fact-checking as well as not reporting anything having to do with discrimination regarding…I find it to be contrary to American justice. Telling the truth matters,” Biden stated, adding the move appeared to be “completely contrary to what America is about.”

“We want to tell the truth. The idea that a billionaire can buy something and say that they won’t fact-check, and then you have millions of people reading it – I think it’s really shameful,” the president asserted. 

Meta announced the drastic change to its policies earlier this week, with Zuckerberg admitting the fact-checking service has become “too politically biased” and “has destroyed more trust than they’ve created.”

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“What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it’s gone too far,” the Meta CEO said. 

The company now plans to introduce a model similar to the scheme used by Elon Musk’s platform X, allowing users to flag potentially misleading posts and add “community notes” to them for additional context.

Meta has also opted to drop its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and revised its approach to the hiring process that previously took gender and the racial background of applicants into account. The changes have reportedly already started taking effect across the company’s offices. Examples include an order to remove tampons from male bathrooms, as well as transgender and non-binary themes having been taken off the company’s messenger.