"Surprised he's taken this long to copy Elon"— Internet accuses Mark Zuckerberg of copying Tesla CEO amid Meta's clamp down on fact-checkers

On Tuesday, January 7, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced some changes to content moderation on his two major social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram. He said the company would replace its third-party fact-checkers with a community-driven contribution.

"First, we're going to get rid of fact-checkers, and replace them with Community Notes, similar to X, starting in the U.S."

Zuckerberg also revealed his plans to work with Donald Trump to:

"push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more."

Netizens perceived the Meta CEO's video as laden with MAGA inclination. While some called him out on this note, others critiqued him for imitating X Community Notes.

"I’m surprised he’s taken this long to copy Elon," joked one X user.

"Zuck only knows which way the wind is blowing. He was happy to do the bidding of the security state for the last ten years & now Musk has stolen his audience," said another.

"He has come to the realization that if he doesn't do something his platforms will collapse to X," one more chimed in.

Others commented about the supposed political tinge in Mark Zuckerberg's announcement.

"I wonder if all of this change from Zuckerberg would have happened if Kamala Harris had won," commented another person.

"Rank opportunist who will sell you out in an instant," said one individual.

"i should probably delete my Facebook and Instagram before it becomes a right wing cesspool full of harassment," wrote another X user.

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Mark Zuckerberg briefs the upcoming changes in Meta

In his Instagram video on Tuesday, Zuckerberg said the legacy media repeatedly wrote about misinformation posing as a threat to democracy after Trump's presidential victory in 2016. He claimed Meta attempted to "address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth." However, Zuckerberg accused the fact-checkers on Meta's platforms of being "too politically biased."

Thus, the CEO says Meta would gradually introduce a Community Note system in the coming months. The platforms would also get simplified content policies and would be rid of multiple restrictions on topics such as gender and immigration. Zuckerberg claimed these topics are "out of touch with mainstream discourse."

Mark Zuckerberg also seemingly addressed certain ideological differences between leftists and rightists, especially topics the right-wing people consider "woke."

"What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas. And it's gone too far," he said.

He revealed his plans to ensure everyone can share their beliefs and experiences on Meta's platforms. The company also aims to enforce policies that will reduce the number of circumstances that have led to censorship on its platforms so far.

"We used to have filters that scan for any policy violation. Now, we’re gonna focus those filters on tackling illegal and high-severity violations. And for lower severity violations, we’re going to rely on someone reporting an issue before we take action," Zuckerberg explained.

Mark Zuckerberg reasoned that these filters usually remove some content that doesn't require removal. Thus, Meta is aiming to bring dramatic moderation in censorship by modifying these filters.

"We're also going to tune our content filters to require much higher confidence before taking down content," he said.

The 40-year-old CEO announced Meta is also reintroducing civic content, claiming they received feedback that users want to see more political content these days. Zuckerberg added the company is simultaneously trying to keep the Facebook, Instagram, and Threads community "friendly and positive."

Mark Zuckerberg also announced that Meta's US-based content review team will move from its California office to Texas.

"As we work to promote free expression, I think that will help build trust to do this work in places where there's less concern about the bias of our teams."

Mark Zuckerberg claimed the crux of these changes in Meta's content policies is the need to restore "free expression" across its platforms. The company would now shift its focus from removing content to reducing mistakes.