Idec expresses concern about thechanges announced today by Mark Zuckerbergin content moderation for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Replacing fact-checkers with "community notes" and reducing moderation filters can increase the circulation of misinformation, hate speech, and harmful content on platforms.
These changes affront legitimate regulatory initiatives and directly impact users' daily lives, exposing them to fraud, abuse, and misleading information that can harm everyday activities such as online shopping and health information searches. In addition to being potentially dangerous during election periods, the weakening of moderation rules reduces platform safety, especially for more vulnerable groups such as the elderly, Black people, children, and adolescents.
Idec warns that the changes announced by Meta demonstrate the structural problem of power concentration in the hands of corporations that act as arbiters of the digital public space and prioritize corporate interests at the expense of user safety and rights. Such abusive change reinforces the need for a more robust regulation that holds platforms accountable for damages caused by their business models and prioritizes consumer protection in the digital environment. It is essential that users stay alert and that governments and organizations act to ensure a safer and more reliable online space.
