Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Instagram and Facebook decided on Tuesday, Jan 7, 2025 to remove fact checking from his platforms in order to provide users with freedom of speech that ended up sparking a handful of controversy due to the fact misinformation and harmful content will be consumed by younger generations.
According to Clare Duffy on CNN she claims that the reasoning behind Zuckerberg’s decision will have a more positive impact on society rather than negative because “too much content was being censored that shouldn’t have been” which will lead to a reduction in the “number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that were accidentally taken down.”
Since the first amendment states that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech,” It will provide the opportunity for all generations to receive the chance to speak out their opinions and beliefs without the fear of their content being taken down. This will lead to a more content society since there will be a reduction of bias being spread throughout platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
“I think that it’s a big upgrade for social media since now it will be much easier for users to spread their stories and information online,” Ronin Miyake ‘26 stated. “For me I definitely feel like my trust for anything on social media has made me very skeptical of what I see on my feed but I understand that people can now say what they think without consequences.”
On the contrary, even with the chance to regain our freedom of speech there are still a handful of problems that will arise with the removal. Not only will it increase the risk of harmful content being presented online, but it will also harm the development of younger generations due to what they are consuming on the internet.
According to David Bauder on AP News he infers that with Meta cutting off fact-checkers It means that the content presented on the internet will rely in the hands of the users rather than third party checkers. With this new form of reviewing poor content, that means that not everything that goes against the guidelines of social media platforms will be taken down which can be harmful to the viewers.
“I feel, with the increase in younger users on social media platforms, that it is the responsibility of companies like Meta to fact-check and facilitate a way for adolescent users to understand that the Internet may not always be credible,” Lily Simmons ‘26 stated.
“There’s clearly a double-edged sword here, with the Constitutional argument about freedom of speech being supported but the lack of credibility also developing,” Simmons stated. “I feel like it is much easier for me to be skeptical of these platforms and their ability to produce more good than harm with the removal of fact-checking.”
