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Meta scrapped factcheckers because systems were 'too complex'

Comments by co-chair of oversight board Helle Thorning-Schmidt come as X CEO welcomes move by rival

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the co-chair of the social media company’s oversight board and the former prime minister of Denmark, has said she and the departed president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, had agreed “Meta systems have been too complex”, adding that there had been “over-enforcement”. The 40-year-old billionaire said that, starting in the US, Meta would “get rid of factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X”, as the company moves to prioritise free speech in the run-up to Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Wearing a rare Swiss watch, reportedly worth almost $900,000 (£722,607), Zuckerberg called Meta’s current moderation system “too politically biased”, although he admitted that changes to the way the company filters content would mean “we’re going to catch less bad stuff”.

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