Behind the Curtain: The new gatekeepers
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Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios
Never has it been easier to spread misinformation at scale — with less concern about media meaningfully policing it, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen write in a "Behind the Curtain" column.
Why it matters: Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are of one mind. The most powerful global information platforms should be governed by free speech — and the people — not by the platforms themselves.
Both concluded it's too hard, too inherently biased, and too restrictive to put limits on speech. It's also cheaper to stop trying — and convenient to switch as Washington goes all-in on MAGA.
- A decade ago, the mainstream media played the role of spotting and exposing misinformation spread under the guise of legitimate free speech. But faith in the traditional media is in the dumpster.
What's new: Meta made a far-reaching announcement Tuesday, with a post headlined, "More Speech and Fewer Mistakes." Facebook, Instagram and Threads will end their third-party fact-checking program — and move to a Community Notes model, where users add corrections and context.
- Joel Kaplan — who last week was named Meta's chief global affairs officer, succeeding Nick Clegg — announced the changes Tuesday on the famous curvy couch at "Fox & Friends," a favorite show of President-elect Trump. "This is a great opportunity for us to reset the balance in favor of free expression," Kaplan said.
- Mark Zuckerberg — Meta founder, chairman and CEO — says in a video: "We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms."
Between the lines: The truth is, it is an almost impossible task for companies to police speech without bias or unfairness. That leaves two other options — the government or individuals. Both X and Meta are choosing people, with an imperfect "community notes" mechanism to correct misinformation in real time.
- X's Community Notes system "regularly allows blatant misinformation to be loudly amplified for hours or days before being noted," Axios' Dan Primack notes (on X!).
Global implications: Online misinformation that affects elections in the U.S. and Europe has also started wars and led to killings in Myanmar and elsewhere.
The bottom line: That opens most of social media up as a Wild West of expression, where high-quality, trustworthy information will commingle with garbage and misinformation. That's what free speech absolutists have long fought for.
- That puts a heavy burden on us, as individual consumers of news, to be super-savvy in spotting and sharing what's real — and what's crap. It also gives a massive advantage to those with the biggest platforms or biggest followings — including Musk himself.
Go deeper: Watch Zuck's video ... More on Meta's move.
