Meta, the parent company of WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook, announced the termination of its fact-checking program in the United States, which will be replaced by a ‘Community Notes’ system.
With this change, similar to Elon Musk’s platform X, the tech giant shifts responsibility for content verification to users, who are expected to evaluate posts, flag false information, and make corrections.
The change in the verification protocol, which had been conducted by professional agencies since 2006, was justified by the company in an official statement on Tuesday (7).
According to Patricia Peck, CEO of Peck Advogados, a leading authority in Digital Law in Brazil for 20 years, Mark Zuckerberg’s advocated ‘return to roots’ cannot be devoid of responsibility.
‘Besides demonstrating alignment with the new U.S. administration, Zuckerberg’s statement makes it clear that this same understanding should resonate in other countries. Care must be taken to avoid political pressure contradicting existing laws and compromising sovereignty in other nations,’ she states.
In Brazil, for example, there is a constitutional provision for freedom of expression, but it must be balanced with other rights, such as national sovereignty, privacy, and civil and criminal liability for potential excesses. In this context, Peck highlights the risks of increased polarization and the spread of prejudiced and criminal content.
‘Additionally, there is a risk that community notes could be artificially used to favor or harm certain political, ideological, or other positions,’ she explains.
With the return of the debate on the Civil Rights Framework for the Internet, scheduled for the first half of 2025, the topic may be discussed by the justices of the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
‘As a rule, companies must comply with Brazilian laws and judicial orders, regardless of the model adopted by corporations in their home countries. If we consider that a large volume of removals will no longer be proactively taken down from networks, we are likely to see an increase in lawsuits for content removal,’ concludes Peck.’
