Zuckerberg says: fact checks are political, Ressa raises the alarm!

Zuckerberg says: fact checks are political, Ressa raises the alarm!

Mark Zuckerberg, the controversial founder of Facebook, caused excitement with his latest announcement. In a surprising step, he announced that he ended the cooperation with facts and loosen the control of the spread of false information on his platforms. This contradicts the now established practice of marking posts with false claims. According to Zuckerberg, trust in fact checks was massively damaged because they are perceived as "politically biased". Instead, users should decide on the truth content of contributions in the future, similar to Twitter, now X. However, this raises concerns about the spread of misinformation.

Maria Ressa, the Filipino journalist and Nobel laureate, commented concerns about the possible effects of this decision. In an interview with AFP, she warned of “extremely dangerous times” for democracy, since the end of the factual review program could lead to a “world without facts”. This could particularly have catastrophic consequences, since dictators and other authoritarian governments would enable operating unhindered. Ressa emphasized that Zuckerberg's approach does not serve to promote freedom of speech, but rather to maintain control and profit. The European Fact Checking Standards Network (EFCSN) supported this assessment and pointed out that facts tests are recognized as an effective remedy for misinformation, which they emphasized in an official statement.

facts under fire

The EFCSN has also spoken out for the independence and integrity of facts, and emphasizes that they follow the highest journalistic standards. They warned of the risk of an increase in foreign election affairs in the face of impending elections in Europe if the fight against disinformation is weakened. In the past few months, cooperation with Facebook, in particular to mark false content, has experienced an increase in effectiveness with over 68 million contributions marked between July and December 2023 in the EU, which underlines the relevance of unadulterated information.

The dangers for democracy and the integrity of journalism are obvious, according to Ressa and the EFCSN. It is obvious that the factual check plays an important role in the fight against the spread of false information and that the maintenance of an impartial debate about the platforms is important. The EU and the public must remain vigilant to combat the spread of misinformation and to maintain the valuable performance of the factual testers, such as Zeitung and efcsn report.