Fact Checker Condemns Facebook for Cutting Ties With ‘First Responders’ of the Internet
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
A fact-checking organization involved with Facebook condemned the company for cutting ties with its partners in on Tuesday, in a statement which compared fact-checkers to the “first responders” of the internet.
After Facebook parent company Meta announced it would be ending its partnership with third-party fact-checkers in the U.S. following President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, the U.K.-based Full Fact organization condemned the move.
“Meta’s decision to end its partnership with fact checkers in the US is disappointing and a backwards step that risks a chilling effect around the world,” protested Full Fact CEO Chris Morris:
From safeguarding elections to protecting public health to dissipating potential unrest on the streets, fact checkers are first responders in the information environment. Our specialists are trained to work in a way that promotes credible evidence and prioritises tackling harmful information – we believe the public has a right to access our expertise. We absolutely refute Meta’s charge of bias – we are strictly impartial, fact check claims from all political stripes with equal rigour, and hold those in power to account through our commitment to truth.
Like Meta, fact checkers are committed to promoting free speech based on good information without resorting to censorship. But locking fact checkers out of the conversation won’t help society to turn the tide on rapidly rising misinformation.
Misinformation doesn’t respect borders, so European fact checkers will be closely examining this development to understand what it means for our shared information environment.
Full Fact has been a partner in Facebook’s Third Party Fact Checking Programme since 2019 and received £373,510 – or around $466,000 – from the company in 2023 alone.
According to Full Fact’s funding page, the company received more than £2.5 million ($3.1 million) from Facebook between 2019 and 2023.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that Facebook would be shutting down its partnership with fact-checkers in the U.S. in favor of a “Community Notes” style system, similar to the one implemented by Elon Musk on his social network X.
“The fact checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, especially in the US,” said Zuckerberg. “So over the next couple of months, we’re going to phase in a more comprehensive community note system.”
Since Trump’s 2024 election victory, Zuckerberg has sought to align himself closer to the president-elect – donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and hiring allies such as Dana White.
Asked on Tuesday whether he thought Zuckerberg was “directly responding to the threats that you have made to him in the past,” Trump replied, “Yeah, probably.”
