The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk criticized Friday social media company Meta’s decision to end fact-checking programs created to battle the spread of misinformation on social networks, stressing the “real world consequences” of unregulated online spaces.
Türk cited the immense power of social media to “fuel conflict, incite hate and threaten safety” as support for regulating the area. The rights chief made his statements on both X (formerly Twitter) and an accompanying post on LinkedIn where he argued that failing to monitor misinformation results in the marginalization of already oppressed groups, adding that, “[f]reedom of expression thrives when diverse voices can be heard without enabling harm or disinformation. My office will continue to call for accountability and governance in the digital space, in line with human rights. This safeguards public discourse, builds trust, and protects the dignity of all.”
Meta, the parent company for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, announced it was ending its fact-checking program earlier this month, pointing toward “mistakes” and “over-censorship” on their platforms. Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted to “bad stuff” on the platforms but said the political bias of fact-checkers has “destroyed more trust than they have created.” He announced the implementation of a comprehensive “community notes system” to assist with misinformation and blamed filters on the sites for taking down more content than they should.
Zuckerberg criticized Europe for censorship, claiming that their laws on free speech made it “difficult to build anything innovative.” He vowed to work with President-elect Trump to “push back” against foreign countries who “go after American companies” on regulation of social media.
Türk’s message follows outcry from other foreign officials, including the European Commission which dismissed Zuckerberg’s claim that EU laws amount to censorship. Social media and other tech companies have been subject to different regulatory actions in recent years, such as efforts to ban social media for children in Australia and issues on data sharing and affirmations of international law in cyberspace.
