Content | Moderation, Creation and a new way forward
It may not have escaped your notice that news channels have been awash this week with Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement about the way forward for Meta and its content moderation.
Specifically, he announced significant changes to Meta’s content moderation policies, impacting platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
Here’s what these changes mean for users:
Transition to Community-Based Moderation
Meta is ending its third-party fact-checking program in the U.S. and introducing “Community Notes,” a system where users collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts. This approach mirrors the system used by Elon Musk’s X . The goal is to reduce perceived biases from professional fact-checkers and promote free expression.
Relaxation of Content Moderation Policies
The company plans to lift certain restrictions on speech, focusing enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations. This includes allowing more content that was previously restricted, such as statements about LGBTQ+ individuals based on gender or sexual orientation, citing the need to accommodate political and religious debates.
Personalised Political Content
Meta intends to offer a more personalised approach to political content, enabling users to choose the amount of political discourse they see in their feeds.
Relocation of Moderation Teams
The company is relocating its Trust & Safety division from California to Texas, aiming to reduce perceived biases in content moderation.
So what does that mean for users? The immediate implications, at a high level, are as follows:
Increased Responsibility
Users will play a more active role in moderating content through Community Notes, influencing the context provided for various posts.
Exposure to Diverse Content
With relaxed content policies, users may encounter a broader range of viewpoints, including potentially controversial or offensive material.
Customisation
Users can adjust their settings to control the amount of political content in their feeds, tailoring their experience to personal preferences.
But what are the broader implications?
Political concerns
It’s clear that the announcement has met a significant backlash, with many citing political intent as a key concern. With Donald Trump about to be inaugurated again and Elon Musk playing a significant part in that, there is a lot of disquiet around big ‘tech bro’ influences in mainstream discourse, not just in the US but around the world now we live in a digital age.
Relocating their content moderation services from a heavily Blue State (California) to a heavily Red State (Texas) does nothing to dispel that concern.
Safety concerns
Nobel-prize winner Maria Ressa has been interviewed by the Guardian, raising serious concerns about “a world that is without facts”.
To quote the article, “Journalists have a set of standards and ethics,” Ressa said. “What Facebook is going to do is get rid of that and then allow lies, anger, fear and hate to infect every single person on the platform.”.
Free speech or the opportunity for hate speech?
Meta had previously been called out for lacking the moderation tools for managing the lines between free speech and hate speech. They put in place tools to moderate this but Mark Zuckerberg’s post suggests it's not working well enough, leading to valid, reasonable debate often being suppressed.
However, removing all guardrails comes with its risks, issues and concerns. Steven Barlett (Entrepreneur, BBC Dragon’s Den investor and podcast host of The Diary Of A CEO) has summarised this in his latest post on LinkedIn here.
Content creation
We’ll be writing more in our Journal this month about content creation and how brands are trying to respond to the need for increased volumes of content. However, Instagram CEO, Adam Mosseri has just given two key focuses for them this year:
Creativity and connecting with the people you care about. So, let’s dissect that…
Creativity
His announcement suggests that they will be making improvements to their creative tools for starters. He wants users to create unique content that is representative of them as a brand, that appeals to their audiences and, importantly, that people want to save and share.
Metrics such as saves and shares will become even more critical and will be key metrics to look for, beyond likes and comments or a simple follow.
Connecting
The idea of creativity plays into the other focus, which is connecting with the people you care about. So he will focus on prioritising their messaging services and up-ranking content shared with friends and family. Have you ever sent content to a friend via DM? It’s encouraging more of that.
For brands and creators, the emphasis on creativity and connection opens new opportunities to engage audiences in more personalised and impactful ways. Success will depend on adapting to the changing dynamics of platform algorithms and leveraging tools that prioritise authentic and shareable content.
Ultimately, Meta’s vision represents both an opportunity and a responsibility—for the company, its users, and the broader digital community. Whether this new path will lead to a more inclusive and innovative online space or exacerbate existing concerns will depend on how these policies are implemented and embraced in the months ahead.
