Former NFL reporter Michele Tafoya criticized Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday after the billionaire announced he was getting rid of Facebook’s fact-checking program.
The third-party fact-checking system will be replaced by X-like community notes, Zuckerberg said in a video.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg once claimed that Facebook had removed 18 million posts containing “misinformation” about COVID-19. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The company’s system was implemented after the 2016 election and was used to “manage content” and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to “political pressure,” executives said, but they admitted that the system has ” gone too far.” The political bias of fact-checkers seemed to be one of the main problems.
Tafoya appeared on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich” to talk about Zuckerberg’s decision. Dakich asked what gave Zuckerberg the right to make an about-face now.
“Absolutely nothing. This is not unique to Facebook. I had a guest on my podcast yesterday, Gad Saad, a professor from Canada, and so many things have happened there under the Justin Trudeau administration that have been really similar,” Tafoya said. . “People are being completely kicked out of their professions. We’re talking about doctors, researchers, professors, medical experts because they said something cheesy that someone felt uncomfortable with.
Then-NBC Sports commentator Michele Tafoya after the game between the New Orleans Saints and the Buffalo Bills at Caesars Superdome. (Chuck Cook-USA Today Sports)
META ENDS FACT-CHECKING PROGRAM AS ZUCKERBERG VOWS TO RESTORE FREE EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM
“This suppression of human thought, this suppression of human opinion, is completely antithetical to America and free speech. People don’t see this happening or agree with it. This should be a huge, flashing red light.
“Mark Zuckerberg knows what he did was wrong, and now he’s going to try to fix it and hope we’ll just say, ‘Oh, good for you, you fixed it, Mark.'”
Meta’s director of global affairs, Joel Kaplan, told Pak Gazette Digital earlier Tuesday that using community notes is a better option.
“Instead of going to some so-called expert, it’s up to the community and the people on the platform to provide their own comments on something they’ve read,” Kaplan explained, noting that if a story receives support from “the cross-section of users”, that note can be attached to the content for others to see.
Mark Zuckerberg arrives to testify before the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child sexual exploitation, in Washington, DC, on January 31, 2024. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
“We think it’s a much better approach than relying on so-called experts who bring their own biases to the program,” Kaplan said.
