On Saturday I wrote advising that people should be cautious about expecting the promotion of Joel Kaplan at Meta means the company will end, or even make a big reduction in, its censorship at its social media sites of Facebook and Instagram. I stand by my analysis in that article. Yet, new comments from Meta leadership and actions by the company in the days since do weigh in favor of optimism.
To see some reason for optimism, check out two articles posted at CNBC this week.
First, Ashley Capoot reported at CNBC regarding Meta having announced Tuesday it is taking action to “restore free speech” by replacing its third-party fact checking program with a community notes program similar to what exists at Twitter. Further, reported Capoot, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video announcement the same day that ““we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes, and too much censorship,” and “the recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech, so we’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our polices and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Capoot related in the article that Kaplan and Meta’s Oversight Board made comments, also on Tuesday, indicating Meta has a new commitment to increased respect for free speech:
“We want to make it so that, bottom line, if you can say it on TV, you say it on the floor of Congress, you certainly ought to be able to say it on Facebook and Instagram without fear of censorship,” Kaplan said Tuesday.
Meta’s Oversight Board, which provides an independent check of the company’s content moderation, lauded the company’s changes on Tuesday.
“The Oversight Board welcomes the news that Meta will revise its approach to fact-checking, with the goal of finding a scalable solution to enhance trust, free speech and user voice on its platforms,” the board told CNBC in a statement, adding that “specifically in the United States, rightly or wrongly, Meta’s previous approach has been perceived as politically biased by many of its users.”
The second CNBC article, written by Jonathan Vanian, is focused on Meta’s announcement that Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White is joining Meta’s board of directors. White has a reputation of not trying to restrict what fighters in UFC competition say.
Here is video of White expressing, with a bit of cursing, his strong commitment to respecting the free speech of UFC fighters:
Now that’s the kind of policy it would be great to see Meta implement.