Failing democracy update

Social media and the mainstream media generally are now under intensifying pressure to shut up or praise DJT and MAGA. Truth is dying. The NYT writes: 

1. Meta to End Fact-Checking Program in Shift Ahead of Trump Term -- The social networking giant will stop using third-party fact-checkers on Facebook, Threads and Instagram and instead rely on users to add notes to posts. It is likely to please President-elect Trump and his allies.

2. Zuckerberg conceded there would be more ‘bad stuff’ on his sites -- Meta on Tuesday announced changes to its content moderation practices that would effectively end a fact-checking program instituted to curtail the spread of misinformation across its social media apps. Instead of using news organizations and other third-party groups, Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, will rely on users to add notes to posts that may contain false or misleading information.

The reversal of the years-old policy is a stark sign of how the company is repositioning itself for the Trump presidency in the weeks before it begins. Meta described the changes with the language of a mea culpa: Joel Kaplan, Meta’s newly installed global policy chief, said in a statement that the company wanted to “undo the mission creep that has made our rules too restrictive and too prone to over-enforcement.”

Note: There never was irrational mission creep, excessive restrictions or over-enforcement of dark free speech, demagoguery, lies, etc. This is DJT and MAGA exerting power to shut down criticism of DJT and MAGA.

3. Who is Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new global policy chief? -- Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new chief global affairs officer, played a leading role in Tuesday’s content moderation announcement.

In an exclusive interview on “Fox and Friends,” Mr. Kaplan said the company’s previous fact-checking system became too biased and the company wanted to return to its roots of more unfettered speech. He pointed to Elon Musk’s X, which has few rules and allows users to moderate each other, as a good model.

Note: Kaplan is a cynical liar. Zuckerberg is protecting his wealth at the expense of democracy and truth.

4. Meta ends interventions widely seen as effective at reducing belief in falsehoods -- Multiple studies have shown that interventions like Facebook’s fact-checks were effective at reducing belief in falsehoods and reducing how often such content is shared. A study published last year in the journal Nature Human Behavior showed that warning labels, like those used by Facebook to caution users about false information, reduced belief in falsehoods by 28 percent and reduced how often the content was shared by 25 percent. Researchers found that right-wing users were far more distrustful of fact-checks, but that the interventions were still effective at reducing their belief in false content.