Facebook and Instagram's parent company, Meta, announced today its ending third-party fact-checking on its platforms,

calling the decision a return to a, quote, fundamental commitment to free expression.

Meta's fact-checking program was rolled out in the wake of the 2016 election.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said today the rules had become too restrictive and prone to over enforcement.

We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content. But the problem with complex systems

is they make mistakes. Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people.

And we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship.

The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.

So we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies,

and restoring free expression on our platforms.

To discuss the implications of this shift, we're joined now by Renee Duresta, Associate Research

Professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University.

Thanks for being with us.

Thanks for having me.

So let's set the stage.

Why did Meta initially put this fact-checking program into place?

And was it effective? Yeah. So it was launched

in December 2016 in response to widespread criticism of fake news that had gone viral quite a bit

during the 2016 presidential campaign. And the platform faced a lot of backlash in response to that.

So the fact-checking initiative was launched as part of Facebook's efforts to kind of restore its brand, restore trust. It partnered with the third-party

fact-checking organizations that were certified by the international fact-checking network.

So it went to existing organizations that were already quite reputable. And it worked to incorporate

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