Meta scraps third-party fact-checkers, rolls back hate speech rules on its platforms [Video]

In a major move affecting public discourse, Facebook parent company Meta announced this week it is getting rid of third-party fact checkers on its platforms.Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday announced changes to content moderation on Facebook and Instagram, long sought by conservatives. Incoming President Donald Trump said the new approach was “probably” due to threats he made against the technology mogul.The move to replace third-party fact-checking with user-written “community notes” similar to those on Trump backer Elon Musk’s social platform X is the latest example of a media company moving to accommodate the incoming administration. It comes on the four-year anniversary of Zuckerberg banning Trump from his platforms after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.Zuckerberg has been a target of Trump and his allies since he donated $400 million to help local officials run the 2020 election during the coronavirus pandemic. Those donations became …