Meta is studying how halting fact checking on its platforms would fare under EU law, a French minister said Wednesday, although the change so far only affects the US.
Meta stunned the social media world Tuesday with its announcement that it would abandon professional fact checking in the US in favour of user-generated “Community Notes”, similar to those found on Elon Musk’s X platform.
The Facebook and Instagram parent company “assured us that they plan to respect our rules and that they are keeping in mind this impact study, which is underway”, junior minister for digital technologies Clara Chappaz told AFP.
The study would aim to “understand what the impact on users will be and to ensure that moderation remains at a high standard”, Chappaz added.
AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook’s fact checking programme, in which Facebook pays to use fact checks from around 80 organisations globally on its platform, WhatsApp and on Instagram.
The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) requires major platforms to carry out a risk analysis before launching any new service in Europe and take measures to alleviate them if necessary.
Meta “has not yet laid out their European timetable” for a similar change, Chappaz said.
