Meta to replace ‘biased’ fact-checkers with moderation by users

Meta’s blog post said it would also “undo the mission creep” of rules and policies.

“It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms,” it added.

It comes as technology firms and their executives prepare for Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.

Several CEOs have publicly congratulated Trump on his return to office, while others have travelled to Trump’s Florida estate Mar-Lago to meet with the incoming president, including Zuckerberg in November. Meta has also donated $1m to an inauguration fund for Trump.

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising free speech,” said Zuckerberg in Tuesday’s video.

Meta notified Trump’s team of the policy change before the announcement, the New York Times reported, external.

Kaplan replacing Sir Nick – a former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister – as the company’s president of global affairs has also been interpreted as a signal of the firm’s shifting approach to moderation and its changing political priorities.

The company also announced on Monday that Dana White, a close Trump ally and president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, would join its board of directors.

Kate Klonick, associate professor of law at St John’s University Law School, said the changes reflected a trend “that has seemed inevitable over the last few years, especially since Musk’s takeover of X”.

“The private governance of speech on these platforms has increasingly become a point of politics,” she told BBC News.

Where companies have previously faced pressure to build trust and safety mechanisms to deal with issues like harassment, hate speech, and disinformation, a “radical swing back in the opposite direction” is now underway, she added.