PM vows to ‘act in our national interest’ after Meta scraps fact-checkers

Anthony Albanese has vowed to “act in our national interest” after tech giant Meta said it is scrapping fact-checking on its social media platforms.

Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg announced overnight Facebook, Instagram and Threads would move to an X-style community notes system, citing mission creep in its third-party fact-checking network.

Asked about the move at a press conference on Wednesday, the Prime Minister said social media companies have a “social responsibility” and pledged to push on with his government’s social media crack down, including a ban for under 16s.

“We will stand up for Australia’s national interests,” Mr Albanese told reporters.

“I have met too many parents who have lost their young ones as a result of the impact that social media has had.

“We know that the rise in mental health issues for young people is linked with social media, all of the experts tell us that is the case.

“We will continue to act in our national interest and I say to social media they have a social responsibility and they should fulfil it.”

He also praised eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who had several clashes with X owner Elon Musk last year after the tech baron refused to take down graphic videos of stabbings in Sydney circulating on his platform.

Ms Inman Grant has said she got “credible death threats” after her run-ins with Mr Musk.

She will be responsible for enforcing the social media ban.

“We think Julie Inman Grant does a terrific job,” Mr Albanese said.

“She has to put up with a lot of criticism, all of it unfounded and we will back her.”

‘Cultural tipping point’

Mr Zuckerberg said in a video statement that the move to axe fact-checking would start in the US.

He said Donald Trump’s second White House win was a “cultural tipping point towards once again prioritising speech”.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced Facebook and Instagram will replace third-party fact checkers with a system in the style of X’s community notes. Making the announcement on January 7, Zuckerberg said, “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.” “We’re replacing fact checkers with Community Notes, simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes. Looking forward to this next chapter.” Zuckerberg said “dialling back” content filters would reduce censorship on Meta sites. But he described this as a trade off. “We’re going to catch less bad stuff,” he said. Credit: Mark Zuckerberg via Storyful

Third-party fact-checking came about as a way to counter misinformation flooding social media in the mid 20-teens amid concerns turbo-charged falsehoods could manipulate political discourse.

Meta engaged established media organisations as well as independent fact-checking groups to check viral claims made on its platforms.

The task of sorting fact from fiction only continued to grow in the informational chaos of the Covid-19 pandemic, which oversaw a massive collapse in public trust globally.

Mr Zuckerberg said it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram”.

“So we built a lot of complex systems to moderate content,” he said.

“But the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes.

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