Business
Meta is following X's playbook on fact-checking. Here's what it means for you
Facebook parent company Meta Platforms said Tuesday that it’s ending a third-party fact-checking program in the United States, a controversial move that will change how the social media giant combats misinformation.
Instead, Meta said it would lean on its users to write “community notes” on potentially misleading posts. Meta’s move toward crowd-sourcing its content moderation mirrors an approach taken by X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
The decision by Meta sparked criticism from fact-checkers and advocacy groups, some of whom accused Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg of trying to cozy up to President-elect Donald Trump. Trump has often lashed out at Facebook and other social media sites for what he has said are their biases against him and right-leaning points of view.
Zuckerberg, through Meta, is among a group of tech billionaires and companies who donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. This month, Meta also named Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican lobbyist, as the new head of global policy. And Dana White, the chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a friend of Trump’s, is joining Meta’s board.
Content moderation on social media sites has become a political lightning rod with Republicans accusing Facebook and others of censoring conservative speech. Democrats, on the other hand, say these platforms aren’t doing enough to combat political misinformation and other harmful content.
Each day, more than 3 billion people use one of Meta’s services, which includes Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Here’s what you need to know about the decision:
How did Meta’s previous fact-checking program work?
Launched in 2016, Meta’s program included fact-checkers certified by the International Fact-Checking Network to identify and review potentially false information online. The Poynter Institute owns IFCN.
More than 90 organizations participate in Meta’s fact-checking program including Reuters, USA Today and PolitiFact. Through the service, publishers have helped fact-check content in more than 60 languages worldwide about a variety of topics including COVID-19, elections and climate change.
“We don’t think a private company like Meta should be deciding what’s true or false, which is exactly why we have a global network of fact-checking partners who independently review and rate potential misinformation across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp,” Meta said in a post about the program.
If a fact-checker rated a post as false, Meta notified the user and added a warning label with a link to an article debunking its claims. Meta also limited the visibility of the post on its site.
What is Meta changing?
Under the new program, Facebook, Threads and Instagram users will be able to sign up to write “community notes” under posts that are potentially misleading or false. Users from a diverse range of perspectives would then reach an agreement on whether content is false, Kaplan said in a blog post.
He pointed to how X handles community notes as a guide to how Meta would handle questionable content. At X, users who sign up to be able to add notes about the accuracy of a post can also rate whether other notes were helpful or unhelpful. X evaluates how users have rated notes in the past to determine whether they represent diverse perspectives.
“If people who typically disagree in their ratings agree that a given note is helpful, it’s probably a good indicator the note is helpful to people from different points of view,” X’s community notes guide said.
Meta said it’s also lifting restrictions around content about certain hot-button political topics including gender identity and immigration — a decision that LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD said would make it easier to target LGBTQ+ people, women, immigrants and other marginalized groups for harassment and abuse online.
Separate from its fact-checking program, Meta employs content moderators who review posts for violations of the company’s rules against hateful conduct, child exploitation and other offenses. Zuckerberg said the company would move the team that conducts “U.S. based content review” from California to Texas.
Why is Meta making this change?
It depends on whom you ask.
Zuckerberg and Kaplan said they’re trying to promote free expression while reducing the number of mistakes by moderators that result in users getting their content demoted or removed, or users being locked out of their accounts.
“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said in an Instagram video announcing the changes. “So we’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Under its old system, Meta pulled down millions of pieces of content every day in December, and it now estimates that 2 out of 10 of these actions might have been errors, Kaplan said in a blog post.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that the platform has to combat harmful content such as terrorism and child exploitation, but also accused governments and media outlets of pushing to censor more content because of motivations he described as “clearly political.”
Moving the content moderation teams to Texas, he said, will help build trust that their workers aren’t politically biased.
Advocacy groups, though, say tech billionaires like Zuckerberg are just forging more alliances with the Trump administration, which has the power to enact policies that could hinder their business growth.
Nora Benavidez, senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights at Free Press, said in a statement that content moderation “has never been a tool to repress free speech.”
“Meta’s new promise to scale back fact checking isn’t surprising — Zuckerberg is one of many billionaires who are cozying up to dangerous demagogues like Trump and pushing initiatives that favor their bottom lines at the expense of everything and everyone else,” she said in a statement.
Trump said in a news conference Tuesday that he thought Zuckerberg was “probably” responding to threats the president-elect had made to him in the past.
Trump has accused social media platforms such as Facebook, which temporarily suspended his accounts because of safety concerns after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, of censoring him. He has previously said he wants to change Section 230, a law that shields platforms from liability for user-generated content, so platforms only qualify for immunity if the companies “meet high standards of neutrality, transparency, fairness and nondiscrimination.”
How have fact-checkers responded to the move?
Fact-checkers say that Meta’s move will make it harder for social media users to distinguish fact from fiction.
“This decision will hurt social media users who are looking for accurate, reliable information to make decisions about their everyday lives and interactions with friends and family,” said Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network.
She pushed back against allegations that fact-checkers have been politically biased, pointing out that they don’t remove or censor posts and they abide by a nonpartisan code of principles.
“It’s unfortunate that this decision comes in the wake of extreme political pressure from a new administration and its supporters,” she said. “Fact-checkers have not been biased in their work — that attack line comes from those who feel they should be able to exaggerate and lie without rebuttal or contradiction.”
Times reporter Faith Pinho contributed to this report.
The luxury shopping center in Pacific Palisades will reopen next month after more than $100 million in renovations forced by the January 2025 wildfire that devastated the Los Angeles neighborhood.
Palisades Village will reopen Aug. 15, owner Rick Caruso announced Wednesday. The outdoor center survived the blaze that destroyed homes and other businesses but needed refurbishment to eliminate contaminants that the fire could have spread.
Crews are putting finishing touches on mall buildings after tearing them down to the studs, treating the wood and rebuilding the walls, Caruso said.
“Everybody’s working, and stores are moving their products in,” he said. “It’s a really cool feeling that people have really locked arms and are working together.”
An electrician installs lighting for a restaurant at Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village on Thursday. The shopping center is scheduled to reopen mid-August.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Pacific Palisades resident Allison Polhill, who is rebuilding the home of 30 years that her family lost in the blaze, said she is “thrilled” at the prospect of returning to the mall she used to frequent. Its comeback is a boost for the community, she said.
“Every single step that we make to reopen our commercial corridors is going to bring more people back into the Palisades,” said Polhill, who expects to move back into her home at the end of August.
A total of 6,822 structures were destroyed in the Palisades fire, including more than 5,500 residences and 100 commercial businesses, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Caruso previously attributed the mall’s survival to the hard work of private firefighters and the fire-resistant materials used in the mall’s construction.
The $200-million shopping and dining center opened in 2018 with a movie theater and a roster of upmarket tenants, including Erewhon, which may be the only grocer in the heart of the fire-ravaged neighborhood when it opens.
Caruso’s company was able to fill the mall with tenants despite the long shutdown.
Palisades Village is 99% leased, with the majority of tenants returning, said Jackie Levy, chief financial and revenue officer. Nearly one-third of the shops and restaurants are new to the property.
A firefighter carries a hose back to his rig while walking through a destroyed home from the Palisades fire in Pacific Palisades on Jan. 7, 2025.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Last year, Pacific Palisades-based fashion designer Elyse Walker said she would reopen her eponymous store in Palisades Village after losing her 25-year flagship location on Antioch Street to the inferno.
Other neighborhood shops destroyed in the fire that are reopening at the mall include K Bakery and Loomey’s Toys, which caters to children up to age 12 and used to be across the street from Palisades Elementary Charter School.
“It’s been a journey and I’m excited because I wasn’t sure that there was going to be a place to come back to,” said toy store owner Amanda Rastegar. “Hopefully we can bring some of that magic back.”
Rastegar’s home in the Palisades survived but was damaged by the fire. The family returned about eight weeks ago. Her last memory of the fire was a burning supermarket.
“I just couldn’t wrap my brain around what was happening,” she said. “By the time I left, Gelson’s was on fire.”
Among the returning tenants is Angelini Ristorante & Bar. Well-known Los Angeles chef Gino Angelini said he will be in the kitchen next month for a return of the Italian restaurant.
“We won’t do a big celebrity open,” he said. “We want to have a very soft opening and see our customers come back.”
Construction takes place at Rick Caruso’s Palisades Village on Thursday. The shopping center is scheduled to reopen mid-August.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
An elaborate celebration would not feel “correct for me,” Angelini said, because the devastation has been “very sad” for so many.
Other new tenants include local chef Nancy Silverton, who has agreed to move in with a new Italian steakhouse called Spacca Tutto. Women’s activewear retailer LESET will open its first West Coast location.
Caruso said he is optimistic that customers will return to the center, even though many Pacific Palisades residents are still dispersed. One tracking system estimated that about 30% of the Village’s customer base was impacted by the fire, he said.
“That means 70% did not get impacted, so there’s a lot of customers still left out there,” Caruso said. Historically, the center drew customers from as far away as Beverly Hills and Calabasas, as well as Malibu, Brentwood and Santa Monica.
He also hopes many will be inspired to visit the revived mall.
“I believe in the goodness of people and I believe that people are going to want to support the Palisades,” he said. “They’re going to want to be there and support the businesses that have had the courage and the heart to reopen.”
Walmart is rapidly expanding its network of electric vehicle chargers designed for customers to use while they shop.
The network could help fill gaps in EV infrastructure in states with greater need for chargers. Walmart, which has more than 5,000 locations in the U.S. and hundreds in California, says more than 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of one of its stores.
The chargers also offer an incentive for customers to choose Walmart — Walmart Plus members will receive a 10% discount off an average price of $0.46 per kilowatt-hour of energy at the company’s chargers.
Walmart chargers are already available at more than 75 locations in 17 states, with Texas boasting the most charging stations, followed by Florida and Arizona.
Matthew Nelson, Walmart’s director of energy policy, said last week on LinkedIn that the network will soon reach 29 states, including California.
“We are delivering on the promise of affordable, reliable and convenient charging,” Nelson said in his post.
According to Walmart’s website, six charging stations are coming to California soon, though the company did not offer a specific timeline.
The chargers will be installed at stores in Antelope, Brea, Fresno, Stockton, Suisun City and Vallejo.
Most charging sites in California will include eight to 16 fast-charging stalls, said Walmart spokesperson Kelsey Bohl.
The company first announced plans in April 2023 to install its own EV chargers at Walmart and Sam’s Club stores, with a goal of installing thousands of chargers by 2030. Partnering with ABB E-Mobility and Alpitronic, it added 25 new charging sites this past May and six more in June.
“Walmart is building a leading retail-integrated EV fast-charging network, focused on delivering an affordable, reliable and convenient charging experience where customers already shop,” Bohl said in an emailed statement. “Customers can charge while they shop, access stations through the Walmart app they already use, and benefit from affordable pricing.”
The charging stations already available include 612 individual charging stalls using 400-kilowatt chargers. Each stall has a dual charging cord with both Combined Charging System and North American Charging Standard connectors. The standard connectors, designed by Tesla, are smaller and lighter than the combined systems.
The primary way to pay for the chargers is through the Walmart app, but the company is also experimenting with built-in credit card readers to allow those without the app to use the stations.
Customers can check charger availability on the Walmart app. The company said the chargers will be available 24 hours a day.
Robotaxis could be turning into robocops.
A self-driving Waymo reported two teens to San Mateo, Calif., police on Monday after they were found drinking alcohol and shooting toy guns in the back of the vehicle.
According to a social media post from the San Mateo Police Department, officers detained two 15-year-olds after the Waymo they were riding in contacted the department and stopped in a parking lot until law enforcement arrived.
“Parents do you know where your teens are?” the San Mateo Police Department wrote on Facebook following the incident. “Waymo does!”
Officers removed both teens from the vehicle and determined they were using toy guns to shoot Orbeez out the windows. Orbeez are small, water-absorbing beads sold at toy stores.
“Toy guns, water guns, and BB guns all pose real dangers, especially to an untrained eye,” the Police Department said. “The simple handling of them can cause fear in [passersby].” “
A video posted on Facebook shows at least five officers and a police dog responding to the scene and approaching the Waymo with their weapons raised.
Waymo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Waymo vehicles have internal cameras and microphones that may be used in an emergency or to “promote safety and security,” according to Waymo’s online support page.
The cameras are also used to ensure the vehicles are clean and to help find lost items, according to the support page.
The company said it does not use facial recognition or other biometric identification technologies to identify individuals.
“In more urgent circumstances, support may access live video during a trip,” the Waymo page said.
The San Mateo Police Department’s Facebook post has garnered nearly 60 comments, with one user accusing Waymo of “snitching.”
“At least they got a designated driver?!” one user commented.
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