This 180-degree change is a reaction to Donald Trump’s upcoming second presidential term and competitive methods such as Community Notes X. Meta has decided not to invest more money in its program. Now he hopes that Facebook and Instagram users themselves will decide which content is disinformation and which is not.
In a statement in which Zuckerberg announced he would eliminate the program, he said fact-checkers had succumbed to political bias, destroying more trust than they had gained in the US. However, for Laura Zommer, former director of Chequeado (one of the most essential Spanish-speaking verification organizations) and LatamChequea, and currently leader Verified facts (verification media addressed to the Latino community in the USA) Zuckerberg’s statements are not a surprise, and he has no scientific evidence for his claims. “Fact checkers don’t just censor, they add context,” Zommer says. “We never advocate removing content. We want citizens to have better information so they can make their own decisions.”
Zommer, who is skeptical about the benefits that ending this program could bring to Meta, emphasizes that the company is contradicting itself by ending the fact-checking program, especially since it has highlighted its positive effects in the past. Zommer also agrees with Angie Drobnic Holan, current director of IFCN, on LinkedIn postwrote: “It is unfortunate that this decision comes as a result of extreme political pressure from the new administration and its supporters. The fact-checkers were not biased in their work – this line of attack comes from those who believe they should be able to exaggerate and lie without refutation or denial.”
With Trump threatening a mass deportation of migrants just days before his inauguration, the Latino community is facing a possible novel wave of disinformation. “The evidence suggests this will be bad. We’ll see until this is implemented, but we can say that during the Trump campaign, one of the main disinformation narratives was against migrants, such as the one that claimed that migrants would commit fraud. That’s not true. Past data leads us to believe that this decision will likely have a negative impact on Latino communities in the US,” Zommer tells WIRED en Español.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric isn’t the only thing threatening the ecosystem. At a time when imitation video and audio scams are spreading, having reliable information will be a priority.
Spanish-language fact-checking media at risk
Latin America’s information ecosystem, with its economic vulnerability, is at risk. “Facebook fact-checking program fees continued to keep fact-checking organizations and news organizations with fact-checking sections operating. So I think most likely, if these organizations don’t manage to diversify soon, many of them will. they will disappear,” says Pablo Medina, editor of disinformation research at Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism, CLIP.
While this decision only applies to the United States for now, the project’s disappearance has raised alarm in the Latino media ecosystem. “The attack expressed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the so-called ‘secret courts’ that promote censorship of the platform in Latin America – a false claim – indicates that Brazil is a major concern for the company,” says Tai Nalon, CEO of Aos Fatosone of the most essential fact-checking media in the global South.
“This is entirely consistent with the rhetoric of Donald Trump, who regularly criticizes journalism and fact-checking,” Nalon says. “The arguments used by Zuckerberg have been widely used by the far right around the world to delegitimize successful initiatives against disinformation. Since there has never been dissatisfaction with the work of fact checkers before, it seems to me that this is a move to gain some political advantage. We know Meta is facing antitrust cases in the U.S., and being close to the government could be an advantage for the company.”
Meanwhile, says Laura Zommer, past evidence gives the information ecosystem something to worry about.
WIRED en español reached out to Meta for this story. Through a media representative, the company responded statement (in Spanish) regarding the decision and said this does not apply to WhatsApp and is only for US verifiers.
This story originally appeared on WIRED in Spanish and was translated from Spanish.