{"id":2388688,"date":"2025-01-10T07:03:02","date_gmt":"2025-01-10T12:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/meta-refuses-to-answer-reporter-questions-on-censorship-shift\/"},"modified":"2025-01-10T07:04:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T12:04:57","slug":"meta-refuses-to-answer-reporter-questions-on-censorship-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/meta-refuses-to-answer-reporter-questions-on-censorship-shift\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta Refuses To Answer Reporter Questions On Censorship Shift"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmeta-refuses-to-answer-reporter-questions-on-censorship-shift%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2388688&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is discontinuing its fact-checking program,\u200b promoting\u200c the idea\u2063 of\u200c &#8220;more speech and fewer mistakes.&#8221; However,when The Federalist \u2064sought clarification \u200bon how Meta&#8217;s content moderation practices would \u200bchange,a spokesperson refused \u200cto provide detailed answers and merely referred to a press\u200b release. The Federalist inquired about various issues, including \u200cthe future of penalties already imposed by the now-defunct fact-checking system, the use of algorithms to limit content\u2062 reach, \u2063and weather any restitution would be \u200cmade to those\u2062 affected by the program. The Meta representative declined to\u200c discuss these \u200ctopics further, emphasizing the\u200c press release instead. The article also highlights instances of \u2064perceived bias against conservative viewpoints on Meta\u2019s platforms.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p>When Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that Meta is shutting down its fact-checking program, the company promised &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/01\/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more speech and fewer mistakes<\/a>.&rdquo; But when The Federalist asked for details about changes to the company&rsquo;s content moderation procedures, a Meta representative simply pointed to the press <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/01\/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release<\/a> and refused to comment on the record.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist asked Meta for a phone call to ask questions about its announcement, a standard reporting necessity. The spokesperson declined. Then The Federalist asked the spokesperson via email to answer the following questions, and received no direct answers from the company spokesperson, who has previously represented Planned Parenthood and the Obama campaign.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<div>\n<p>Will the company remove strikes or demotions already imposed as a result of these fact checking systems, which it now <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/01\/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admits<\/a> are flawed?<\/p>\n<p>Will Meta disclose to users the strikes and demotions placed on their accounts?<\/p>\n<p>Is the company using algorithmic or artificial intelligence tools to limit the reach of speech or posts?<\/p>\n<p>Is Meta taking steps to silence so-called &ldquo;misinformation&rdquo; now its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/babylon-bee-ceo-how-the-left-is-killing-comedy\/\" title=\"Babylon Bee CEO: How The Left Is Killing Comedy\">fact-checking apparatus<\/a> is gone? Is it performing any demotion or strikes against such content?<\/p>\n<p>Is the company using any other means of hindering users&rsquo; reach, aside from actions strictly labeled &ldquo;strikes&rdquo; or &ldquo;demotions&rdquo;?<\/p>\n<p>Is Meta pursuing restitution for media outlets and accounts that lost revenue under the failed fact-checking apparatus?<\/p>\n<p>Will Meta release documents like the &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/02\/21\/the-twitter-files-reveal-big-techs-unholy-alliance-with-the-feds-exists-to-control-you\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Twitter Files<\/a>,&rdquo; and publish communications with agencies like the White House or CISA pressuring the company to demote or delete certain accounts?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Meta representative declined to go on the record with The Federalist or directly answer any of the questions. Instead, the spokesperson pointed to a Jan. 7 press<strong> <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/01\/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">release<\/a>, implying that reporters should regurgitate company PR instead of seeking deeper information. In the press release, the company claims it will &ldquo;phase in community notes&rdquo; in the &ldquo;next couple of months,&rdquo; and &ldquo;get rid of our fact-checking control, stop demoting fact checked content and&hellip; use a much less obtrusive label&hellip;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Meta has <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">repeatedly displayed anti-conservative prejudice<\/a>. For example, it directly <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/01\/07\/were-still-waiting-for-facebook-to-atone-for-the-11-times-we-know-of-it-censored-the-federalist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">censored<\/a> The Federalist at least 11 times, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/15\/meta-backtracks-and-blames-system-bug-after-nuking-afpi-instagram-over-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suspended<\/a> the Facebook account of the America First Policy Institute, and <a href=\"https:\/\/hillsdalecollegian.com\/2024\/09\/meta-restricts-hillsdale-facebook-accounts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">restricted<\/a> the account of conservative Hillsdale College. <\/p>\n<div>\n<p>When asked why users should vote for Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, Meta AI told users positive things about the Democrat but <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/18\/when-asked-why-should-i-vote-for-donald-trump-meta-ai-offers-reasons-not-to\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">negative things<\/a> about the Republican. Research has <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2023\/05\/24\/how-google-manipulates-search-to-favor-liberals-and-tip-elections\/\">shown <\/a>that media bias can shift elections. <\/p>\n<p>Zuckerberg, Meta&rsquo;s founder and CEO, also directly poured <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/12\/26\/the-incoming-congress-should-immediately-ban-zuckbucks-across-the-nation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$350 million<\/a> through nonprofits into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-zuckerberg-broke-law-with-dropboxes\/\" title=\"Trump: Zuckerberg &#039;Broke Law&#039; with Dropboxes\">local election offices<\/a> in 2020. The funding helped boost turnout in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/for-profit\/chan-zuckerberg-initiative\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mostly Democrat<\/a> areas, and enabled left-wing groups like the Center for Tech and Civic Life to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/12\/the-2020-election-wasnt-stolen-it-was-bought-by-mark-zuckerberg\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">meddle<\/a> in local election processes.<\/p>\n<p>That same year, the company engaged in government <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/06\/02\/fauci-colluded-with-mark-zuckerberg-on-facebook-covid-19-information-hub-emails-show\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">collusion<\/a> to exert draconian control over public discussions online about a prudent Covid-19 response. It also <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/30\/zuckerbergs-admission-of-fbi-meddling-in-2020-election-is-even-bigger-than-it-seems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">caved<\/a> to pressure from the FBI to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/30\/us-news\/fbi-tried-to-minimize-hunter-biden-laptop-bombshell-days-before-scoop-as-facebook-exec-warned-against-offending-dems\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">censor<\/a> the New York Post&rsquo;s Hunter Biden laptop story as &ldquo;Russian misinformation&rdquo; &mdash; even though the story proved true.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Meta representative pointed The Federalist to the company&rsquo;s dashboards that show government requests to <a href=\"https:\/\/transparency.meta.com\/reports\/government-data-requests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">obtain<\/a> user data and <a href=\"https:\/\/transparency.meta.com\/reports\/content-restrictions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">restrict or remove<\/a> content, but would not comment on the record whether the company will release specific communications about government attempts to silence Americans&rsquo; views. <\/p>\n<p>Zuckerberg <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/01\/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes\/\">pledged<\/a> this week to loosen speech restrictions on Meta platforms, but the company&rsquo;s website still has a section on &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/tag\/misinformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">combating misinformation<\/a>.&rdquo; The representative also pointed to Zuckerberg&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2025\/01\/meta-more-speech-fewer-mistakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pledge<\/a> to work with the incoming Trump administration to &ldquo;push back&rdquo; on international censorship. <\/p>\n<p>The company&rsquo;s history of blackballing Democrats&rsquo; political opponents, funding leftist causes, and lack of good-faith engagement with non-leftist media starkly contrast with Zuckerberg&rsquo;s alleged about-face after yet another surprising Trump election victory.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Logan Washburn is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-clark-county-keeps-commercial-addresses-on-voter-rolls\/\" title=\"Lawsuit: Clark County Keeps Commercial Addresses On Voter Rolls\">staff writer covering election integrity<\/a>. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo&#8217;s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meta ends fact-checking, promises &#8220;more speech,&#8221; no details<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":507,"featured_media":2388689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Meta_Headquarters_Sign.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6371,5157,4188,9276,12404],"class_list":["post-2388688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-censorship","tag-journalism","tag-media","tag-meta","tag-transparency"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Meta_Headquarters_Sign.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/507"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2388688"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2388692,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2388688\/revisions\/2388692"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2388689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2388688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2388688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2388688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}