What changes did Meta introduce in its fact-checking policy? Mark Zuckerberg claims people are smart enough to know what to believe online

On April 28, 2025, Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and CEO of the Meta platforms, appeared on the This Past Weekend podcast with Theo Von. In the podcast, the 40-year-old entrepreneur criticized "sensationalists" from whom he received backlash for the recent termination of the fact-checking program on social media posts.

On January 7, 2025, Meta terminated its third-party fact-checking program in the United States to "return to the commitment to free expression" across Meta platforms, admitting that their past rules had "gone too far".

In its place, the company introduced a Community Notes program, which allows contributing users, rather than outside fact-checkers, to write notes to add helpful context to posts they think are misleading.

While talking with Theo Von, Mark Zuckerberg said there are two views of history: one believes individuals can make their own choices and have influence, while the other believes people can’t be trusted and need to be controlled.

"I’m just like, I’ve always been a person who really kind of believes that people understand—people are smarter than people think", Zuckerberg stated.

Later in the This Past Weekend podcast, Mark Zuckerberg reiterated his belief that people are smart enough to make their own choices.

He emphasized that it is not exactly misinformation that seems to be incorrect when someone shares a belief. Instead, it may reflect that the person does not understand the experiences of the one who has issued the information.

He also warned tech companies not to act superior to users, adding:

“Whenever we adopt the attitude of, 'Oh, we must know better than them because we’re the ones building technology,' that’s when you lose.'

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Is Meta's updated fact-checked policy politically driven under Mark Zuckerberg's leadership?

On January 7, 2025, Meta abandoned the use of its independent fact-checkers on its platforms, developed in 2016. It had been replaced with "community notes," similar to the Elon Musk-owned platform X.

An article published by Meta stated that these moderators were too politically biased and that they wanted to return to "free expression" of speech, adding, "too much harmless content gets censored, too many people find themselves wrongly locked up in “Facebook jail,” and we are often too slow to respond when they do."

According to the BBC, this move was made to improve relations with US President Donald Trump before he took office on January 20, 2025. Trump and other republicans had frequently called Meta's policies censorship, especially of right-wing voices.

However, after the changes were made, Trump made comments in a news conference that Meta "had come a long way."

According to The Times of India, Mark Zuckerberg has previously made "pro-Trump gestures," suggesting that fact-checked policy changes may be politically driven.

These changes reportedly involved appointing Trump supporter Dana White to Meta's board, contributing $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund alongside Amazon and Apple, and relocating trust and safety teams from California to Texas.

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Born on May 14, 2025, Mark Zuckerberg is the father of Maxima, August, and Aurelia, whom he shares with pediatrician Dr. Priscilla Chan.