There will be “real-world harm” if Meta expands its decision to scrap fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, a global fact-checking network warned on Thursday while disputing Mark Zuckerberg’s claim that such moderation amounts to censorship.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s surprise announcement this week to slash content moderation policies in the United States has sparked alarm in countries such as Australia and Brazil.

The tech tycoon said fact-checkers were “too politically biased” and the programme had led to “too much censorship”.

But the International Fact-Checking Network, which includes AFP among its dozens of member organisations globally, said the censorship claim was “false”.

“We want to set the record straight, both for today’s context and for the historical record,” said the network.

Facebook pays to use fact checks from around 80 organisations globally on the platform, as well as on WhatsApp and Instagram.

There could be devastating consequences if Meta broadens its policy shift beyond US borders, to programmes covering more than 100 countries, the International Fact-Checking Network warned.

“Some of these countries are highly vulnerable to misinformation that spurs political instability, election interference, mob violence and even genocide,” the network said. “If Meta decides to stop the programme worldwide, it is almost certain to result in real-world harm in many places,” it added.

‘Real world consequences’

In Geneva, the United Nations rights chief also insisted that regulating harmful content online “is not censorship”.

“Allowing hate speech and harmful content online has real-world consequences. Regulating such content is not censorship,” Volker Turk said on X.

AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook’s fact-checking scheme. In that programme, content rated “false” is downgraded in news feeds so fewer people will see it and if someone tries to share that post, they are presented with an article explaining why it is misleading.

Supinya Klangnarong, co-founder of Thai fact-checking platform Cofact, said Meta’s decision could have concrete effects offline. “Understandably this policy from Meta is aimed at US users, but we cannot be certain how it will affect other countries,” she told AFP.

“Allowing the proliferation of hate speech and racist dialogue could be a trigger towards violence.”

Cofact is not an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network or of Facebook’s fact-checking scheme.

Zuckerberg courts Trump

Meta’s policy overhaul came less than two weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office and it aligns with the Republican Party’s stance.

Trump has been a harsh critic of Meta and Zuckerberg for years, accusing the company of bias against him and threatening to retaliate against the tech billionaire once back in office.

Zuckerberg has been making efforts to reconcile with Trump since his election in November, meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and donating one million dollars to his inauguration fund.

The Meta chief also named Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) head Dana White, a close ally of Trump, to the company board.

Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, said on Tuesday the decision came after “extreme political pressure”. The move “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”.

Australia said Meta’s decision was “a very damaging development”, while Brazil warned it was “bad for democracy”.

Meta’s move into fact-checking came in the wake of Trump’s shock election in 2016, which critics said was enabled by rampant disinformation on Facebook and interference by foreign actors, including Russia, on the platform.