Today, Meta announced that it will end its third-party fact checking program, including its efforts to combat widespread political disinformation. The program had faced criticism from conservative election deniers including former- and future-President Donald Trump.

Заявление Ишана Мехты, директора программы Common Cause Media and Democracy

Americans deserve to know the truth, and Meta’s move to end its third-party fact checking opens the door to endless political lies and disinformation. Social media has become a vital part of our political dialogue, and to remove all guardrails of truth and accountability is recklessly irresponsible. X, under Elon Musk, went down this road, and the impact has been disastrous – with huge spikes in disinformation and hate speech.

Unfortunately, this latest announcement from Meta seems in line with a charm campaign launched by CEO Mark Zuckerberg to curry favor with President-elect Donald Trump. The move follows an in-person meeting with the incoming president, a one million dollar donation to his inauguration committee, and a conservative overhaul of the company’s government relations department.