What the shift to community-driven content moderation on Meta means for brands in the US

‘Free Speech’: Zuckerberg stated that independent fact-checkers were “too politically biased” and that the change aligns with a focus on free expression. The move is partly seen as an effort to improve relations with incoming U.S President Donald Trump who has criticised Meta’s fact-checking policy as “censorship”. 

Impact on current fact checking efforts: Meta introduced its fact-checking system in 2016, which relied on over 90 certified third-party organizations, including PolitiFact and Factcheck.org, to review posts in 60+ languages. The company argued that its attempts to crack down on misleading stories on social media was “well-intentioned” but had “gone too far”, claiming that people were being falsely banned from posting as a result. 

Concerns over Content and Regulation: Meta clarified that posts encouraging self-harm, eating disorders, or suicide would still be monitored under existing policies. However this change does go against regulatory pressures in the UK, requiring tech firms to take more responsibility for harmful content. 

Broader implications for social media: The move reflects a growing trend among tech and social platforms to prioritise “free speech” over rigorous content moderation. Experts see this as a “radical swing” away from trust and safety mechanisms developed to address harassment, hate speech, and disinformation. 

Wider impact on misinformation and moderation: This change has the potential to lead to an increase in misinformation on the site. As a result of this, misleading content is more likely to spread on Meta generally and we may see more users responding to social content with factual inaccuracies.  

Impact on user behaviour: As we’ve seen on X (Twitter), an increase in posting around inflammatory topics and lack of Meta cracking down on these posts is also likely to shift user behaviour on the platform further to political conversation, with more potential for harassment and hate speech on content. 

Community Management: Community management and close monitoring on comments on content will be key, as always. These changes may bring an increase in hate speech and harassment towards certain talent/customers used in content. Be hyper aware of this and ensure you’re protecting the wellbeing of people featured in all social content. 

Robust checking of all content: Brands must ensure they are conducting robust checks of all content, ads and post copy to pre-empt any community note backlash.  

Brand trust and authenticity: This is an opportunity for channels to strengthen audience trust and brand authenticity, maintaining and growing brand reputation on social as credible sources of information at a time when audiences’ trust in social media content is dwindling.