'He Put Them on Notice': Conservative Free Speech Leader Credits Trump Win for Zuckerberg's Retreat

Conservatives are cautiously applauding what they see as a win for free speech now that Meta has announced its ditching its fact-checking program on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

The tech giant plans to shift to a community-based moderation system, sparking a debate over whether this move protects expression or fuels misinformation. 

The shift comes after backlash over Meta's "content moderation," which critics called censorship, that began during the 2016 presidential election and continued through the COVID pandemic. 

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admits fact-checkers showed political bias and undermined trust in the platform, especially in the U.S.

"The bottom line is that after years of having our content moderation work focused primarily on removing content, it is time to focus on reducing the stakes, simplifying our systems, and getting back to our roots about giving people a voice," Zuckerberg said in a video statement Tuesday.

In a bombshell admission last August, Zuckerberg told lawmakers that the Biden administration pressured him to censor COVID content on Facebook and Instagram.

Brent Bozell, President of the Media Research Center is applauding the move, saying Zuckerberg demonstrated courage by acknowledging past mistakes and planning to make things better.

"He was unequivocal in recognizing that they have been in the business of censorship, as we've been saying for years, and they've been denying for years," Bozell told CBN News.  "He said they were going to get rid of third-party fact checkers and that was the problem. The supposition was that by third party you meant independent. Well, it wasn't. It all came out of Silicon Valley. They were all left-wingers and they were all devoted to shutting down conservatives."

Justin Giboney of the AND Campaign points to how his and other faith-based groups have also been harmed by the censorship policies.

"For the AND Campaign for the last two years we have not been able to do any ads or any advertising on any of those platforms which was one of our main ways of advertising and promoting," Giboney said in an interview with CBN News. "Not only that, but even our followership and all that really just stopped at the time that this was enforced. And when they restricted us there was no explanation."   

Zuckerberg also admits the changes are in part a result of recent political events including Donald Trumps' reelection.

"The recent elections also feels 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," he said.   

It is an issue Bozell says the new Trump administration should see as a major victory.

"He has specifically put them on notice. This is just the beginning. I'm coming after you. There is a reason why they have all been paying their respects at Mar O Largo. There's a reason why they are all going to Speaker Mike Johnson's office all pleading their cases about being impartial. Frankly, we've been showing both the president-elect and the speaker that it simply wasn't true," Bozell explained. 

Public Advocacy Director Aaron Terr, of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, also known as FIRE, told CBN's Faith Nation these changes have an impact on political discourse. 

"The Community Notice model for example, might have the effect of reducing polarization if people see it more as a legitimate form of counter speech; that is we respond to speech that we disagree with more speech by trying to expose and rebut it rather than having a few people with power at the top decide what's correct, what's incorrect, what's allowed to be said – maybe that has the potential to sort of again increase trust in the platform and the ability of people to express themselves and to have good faith disagreements," said Terr.

Meanwhile, Giboney and others encourage a wait and see approach as to how new rules on the social media platforms will be carried out.