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I have to commend Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his new policy chief Joel Kaplan for their timing. It is not very surprising that, as the couple announced today, Meta is waived third-party professional fact-checking. The operator of Facebook, Instagram and Threads has been strengthen moderation recently, and fact-checking has always been disputed. But it’s probably smart to do it two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office — and appoints a Federal Communications Commission chief who has threatened the company over it.
Trump’s FCC chairman (and current FCC commissioner), Brendan Carr, is a self-identified free speech advocate with a creative interpretation of the First Amendment. In mid-November, as part of a flurry of slightly threatening missives to various entities, Carr sent a letter at Meta, Apple, Google and Microsoft attack the companies’ fact-checking programs.
The letter was primarily focused on NewsGuard, a conservative bête noire that Meta it doesn’t really work. But he also asked for information about “the use of any media monitor or fact-checking service,” and left no doubt about Carr’s position on them. “You participated in a…
