OPINION: Meta’s new policy changes read like a real fly in the ointment. In a week when technology was rightly celebrated, we also saw its darkest side.
For plenty of folks, January is the most dreaded month of the year. The most dreaded day of said most dreaded month even has its own prophetically self-fulfilling 24-hour period set aside for feeling “blue”.
However, for us in the tech world, that’s not the case.
January is a month for tech positivity, as the world’s most illustrious companies and innovative minds come together to showcase the inventions that’ll power technology this year, and far beyond.
If you’ve been following our CES 2025 coverage, you’ll have seen some mind-blowing new graphics cards that can generate in-game characters that think and act like human players, you’ll have seen triple-screened laptops that open into a mobile command centre, or home robots that can follow you around doing your bidding.
You’ll have also seen weird and wonderful inventions Doc Emmett Brown would be proud of; a toaster-like device that can charge your phone, a robot vac that’ll pick up your dirty undies, and a raised cat bed that’ll also purify the air.
Yes, January is a month to feel good about our tech fandom, so, trust Meta – the owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp – to choose last week to pop that balloon with typical aplomb.
In the tech world this may have been the proverbial good week to bury bad news (and the news is very bad).
In case you missed it, Meta announced that Facebook and Instagram are ditching the third-party team of fact checkers it initially put in place to combat rampant misinformation that has caused societal division, affected elections and undermined trust in the trained media professionals conveying information to the masses.
Mark Zuckerberg says it’s about protecting free speech and limiting censorship. He says fact checkers have been too politically biased and have done more to destroy trust than create it. Sorry Mark, but facts aren’t politically biased. They’re just facts.
“First we’re going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes,” said an uncharacteristically dressed Zuckerberg, fresh off a perm with a baggy t-shirt and gold chain.
Zuckerberg (also Facebook) will back off moderating content concerning issues of gender and immigration, which he says is now “out of touch with mainstream public discourse,” and by now out of touch he means since the US election in November.
This is probably a giant step back for civility on Meta’s platforms. Misinformation now gets a free(r) reign and hate speech is more likely to go unchecked. Zuckerberg says it’s because Facebook’s content filters make too many mistakes in taking down innocent content. So instead of improving them, he’s getting rid of them entirely.
Those who’d sought out Threads as a place away from the chaos on X won’t have that respite anymore either. Threads and Instagram are ramping up political content once again.
“Our intention is to introduce political recommendations in a responsible and personalised way, which means more for people who want this content and less for those who do not,” said Meta executive Adam Mosseri.
In less user-facing news, Meta is also disbanding its Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) team that sought a more representative hiring policy.
Putting America’s First, first
You may be wondering why this litany of change is happening in a random week in January, when the tech world is busy partying in Las Vegas.
Well, a certain person begins his second occupation of America’s most famous building in a matter of days. To be on the wrong side of this person – when rival social media baddie, the owner of X, is very much on the right side of this person – would be bad for Mark Zuckerberg, and bad for Meta.
Because Elon Musk is currently as reviled as he is admired, brazen in his interference in matters that don’t concern him, in a direct position of influence to power to pursue ideological warfare, with the connections and money to remain undamaged by any of it, people have maybe forgotten about the societal influence Zuckerberg wielded and continues to wield.
Jeff Bezos is another that makes Zuckerberg look less of a threat. The Amazon founder and space vessel enthusiast has recently subverted the Washington Post newspaper he’s custodian of. Critics say it’s to ensure an easier ride for his other businesses. From exposing Watergate to Trump’s mate? That’s a sad story.
Those lads make Zuckerberg look like the lesser concern, but Musk and Bezos are not the architects of communications platforms; they simply bought after spotting an opportunity to further other goals. They’re the loss leader to help the pair accumulate the greatest amount of wealth imaginable.
Take away social media from Zuckerberg and what’s he got left? That might explain his willingness to bend his products (and his knee) to serve higher masters, no matter the cost for users and society writ large.
Thanks to Meta, what should have been a great week for technology will be remembered as yet another dark one.
