Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, recently made a big announcement: the platforms are going to stop fact-checking user posts. Instead, Meta will be moving to a community-driven system (similar to X's "community notes").

The move represents an about-face for Zuckerberg. In early 2018, Zuckerberg voluntarily testified before Congress to apologetically discuss Facebook's role in spreading Russian disinformation. It was around this time that Facebook rolled out fact-checks.

Meta's fact-checking was subject to scrutiny within months of its implementation. Much of the scrutiny has stemmed from Meta getting fact-checks wrong on several major issues over the last few years, including the Covid-19 lab-leak theory and the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.

In his testimony, he went so far as to say, "The most important thing I care about right now is making sure no one interferes in the various 2018 elections around the world." When asked whether he would support new regulations, he said he would if they were "the right regulations."

In 2020, Zuckerberg donated over $400 million to election nonprofits such as the Center for Tech and Civic Life to ensure "election integrity."

So why the change? Why is Meta changing from a fact-checking hall monitor to a hands-off bystander?

Rent Extraction, Regulatory Capture, and Fact-Checking

After the 2016 election, Trump's victory was considered an aberration. His narrow victory and the now-debunked Russian collusion narrative dominated major outlets.

Many Democrats blamed Facebook for the loss. They argued that voters had been swayed by Russian-funded propaganda spread on Facebook. Clinton herself took to The Rachel Maddow Show to scold Facebook for its role in spreading "disinformation."

As the 2018 midterms approached, the mainstream media took aim at Facebook for being the cause of Trump's 2016 win. One article from the New York Times used a meme of Jesus and the Devil arm-wrestling as their top example of Russian-paid disinformation. Was the meme paid for by Russians trying to sow discontent? It seems like it. Did a meme of Jesus and the Devil arm-wrestling cost Clinton the election? I'll let you answer that.