Meta Follows X’s Content Moderation Strategy—May Violate EU Privacy Regulations

• Meta is abandoning its moderation and censorship systems in favor of an X-style community notes system.
• CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed the company was getting back to its roots around “free expression.”
• Meta has received more complaints from an EU consumer group over its paid ad-free service.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the tech giant is slashing third-party fact-checking across its platforms, citing a shifting political and social landscape.

Zuckerberg said it would instead be introducing a more free-flowing community notes system with less stringent measures, following in the footsteps of Elon Musk’s X.

The news comes as Meta is embroiled in complaints from a European consumer group that claims its paid ad-free service is misleading users.

Meta’s Paid Ad-Free Service May Breach EU Laws

According to the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), Meta’s newly revised no-ad-subscription service may still breach EU privacy, consumer and antitrust laws.

Meta decreased the service price last year after the BEUC complained to authorities that the tech giant was purposefully directing customers towards it as a preferred option, Reuters reported. 

The BEUC also accused Meta of lessening the service to those who did not agree to give away their data.

“In our view, the tech giant fails to address the fundamental issue that Facebook and Instagram users are not being presented with a fair choice and is making a weak bid to argue it is complying with EU law while still pushing users towards its behavioral ads system,” BEUC Director General Agustin Reyna said.

Meta was charged by EU regulators last year for breaching the Digital Markets Act over allegations its ad-free service forced consumers into a binary choice.

A spokesperson for Meta told Reuters the company disagreed with BEUC and believed its changes to the service made it go beyond what is expected by EU law.

Meta’s Switch to Free Speech

In a video accompanied by a blog post , Zuckerberg said it was time to “get back to our roots around free expression.”

He shared that community notes will soon be deployed on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, each of which houses billions of Meta’s users:

“We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.”

“First, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.”

Zuckerberg noted that the company had seen this work on X, “where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context.”

The Meta boss said this allows people from diverse perspectives to decide what context is helpful for other users to see.

“We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing – and one that’s less prone to bias,” Zuckerberg said.

An Open Floor

Meta’s blog post said that the new measures would remove most of its rules and policies around discussion points.

Previously censored topics such as “immigration, gender, and gender identity” will now be able to be openly discussed on all platforms.

“We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate,” the blog post read. “It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms.”

The move mirrors Musk’s approach to X, which previously received criticism for reinstating banned accounts and allowing hate speech.

Censorship Mistakes

Zuckerberg also admitted that Meta had made millions of mistakes with its censorship systems.

“We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes,” Zuckerberg said.

“Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” he added.

Meta said it would expand transparency reporting and share numbers on mistakes regularly, so users can track the company’s progress.

“We want to undo the mission creep that has made our rules too restrictive and too prone to over-enforcement,” the company said.

Donald Trump’s Influence

The move came in the run-up to President-elect Donald Trump getting sworn into power. The Republican leader has repeatedly criticized Meta’s censorship and moderation, calling Facebook an “enemy of the people ” in March.

In the video, Zuckerberg cited the recent election as a key influence on Meta’s decision to slash its moderation systems:

“We’re going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more.”

Zuckerberg claimed that the Biden administration’s censorship efforts had emboldened other governments’ attacks on free speech.

“The only way that we can push back on this global trend is with the support of the U.S. government, and that’s why it’s been so difficult over the past four years, when even the U.S. government has pushed for censorship,” Zuckerberg added.

“By going after us and other American companies, it has emboldened other governments to go even further,” he added.