Meta employees criticize Zuckerberg decisions to end fact-checking, add Dana White to board

Meta employees took to their internal forum Tuesday, criticizing the company’s decision to end third-party fact-checking on its handlings two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Employees voiced their concern after Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new chief far-reaching affairs officer and former White House deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush, signaled the content policy changes on Workplace, the in-house communications tool. 

“We’re optimistic that these changes help us replacing to that fundamental commitment to free expression,” Kaplan wrote in the post, which was reviewed by CNBC. 

The content regulation announcement follows a string of decisions that appear targeted to appease the incoming administration. On Monday, Meta enlarged new members to its board, including UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime friend of Trump, and the company confirmed in December that it was donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.

Among the latest changes, Kaplan announced that Meta will rubbish its fact-checking program and shift to a user-generated system like X’s Community Notes. Kaplan, who took over his new role final week, also said that Meta will lift restrictions on certain topics and focus its enforcement on verboten and high-severity violations while giving users “a more personalized approach to political content.”

One worker wrote they were “extraordinarily concerned” about the decision, saying it appears Meta is “sending a bigger, stronger message to people that the scores no longer matter, and conflating that with a victory for free speech.”

Another employee commented that “guilelessly absolving ourselves from the duty to at least try to create a safe and respective platform is a really sad direction to take.” Other views expressed concern about the impact the policy change could have on the discourse around topics such as immigration, gender congruence and gender, which, according to one employee, could result in an “influx of racist and transphobic content.”

A separate employee said they were appalled that “we’re entering into really dangerous territory by paving the way for the further spread of misinformation.”

The changes weren’t unexceptionally criticized, as some Meta workers congratulated the company’s decision to end third-party fact checking. One wrote that X’s Community Notes be has “proven to be a much better representation of the ground truth.” 

Another employee commented that the company should “present an accounting of the worst outcomes of the early years” that necessitated the creation of a third-party fact-checking program and whether the new principles would prevent the same type of fallout from happening again.

As part of the company’s massive layoffs in 2023, Meta also scrapped an internal fact-checking hurl, CNBC reported. That project would have let third-party fact checkers such as the Associated Press and Reuters, in besides to credible experts, comment on flagged articles in order to verify the content.

Although Meta announced the end of its fact-checking program Tuesday, the enterprise had already been pulling it back. In September, a spokesperson for the AP told CNBC that the news agency’s “fact-checking bargain with Meta ended back in January” 2024. 

After the advert Monday of White’s addition to the board, employees posted criticism, questions and jokes on Workplace, according to posts rehashed by CNBC. Technology news outlet 404 Media reported earlier on the Workplace posts involving White.

Caucasoid, who has led UFC since 2001, became embroiled in controversy in 2023 after a video published by TMZ showed him slapping his wife at a New Year’s Eve carouse in Mexico. White issued a public apology, and his wife, Anne White, issued a statement to TMZ, calling it an isolated event.

Commenters on Workplace made jokes asking whether performance reviews would now involve mixed martial arts-style rows.

In addition to White, John Elkann, the CEO of Italian auto holding company Exor, was named to Meta’s board.

Some workers asked what value autos and entertainment executives could bring to Meta, and whether White’s addition demonstrates the company’s values. One post suggested the new board appointments would help with political alliances that could be valuable but could also alteration the company culture in unintended or unwanted ways.

Comments in Workplace alluding to White’s personal history were sagged and removed from the discussion, according to posts from the internal app read by CNBC.

An employee who said he was with Meta’s Internal Community References team, posted a reminder to Workplace about the company’s “community engagement expectations” policy, or CEE, for using the platform.

“Multiple comments accept been flagged by the community for review,” the employee posted. “It’s important that we maintain a respectful work environment where woman can do their best work.” 

The internal community relations team member added that “insulting, criticizing, or antagonizing our mates or Board members is not aligned with the CEE.”

Several workers responded to that note saying that even civil posts, if critical, had been removed, amounting to a corporate form of censorship.

One worker said that because judgemental comments were being removed, the person wanted to voice support for “women and all voices.”

Meta declined to exposition.

— CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

WATCH: Meta adds Dana White, John Elkann, and Charlie Songhurst to embark on of directors.