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Indonesia’s fact-checkers slam Meta’s decision to end US fact-checking program

News Desk (The Jakarta Post)
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Sun, January 12, 2025

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Indonesia’s fact-checkers slam Meta’s decision to end US fact-checking program An illustration of fact-checking. (Shutterstock/File)

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coalition of Indonesian fact-checking institutions has denounced Meta’s decision to scrap its fact-checking program in the United States, raising concerns that the tech company may do the same in other countries, exacerbating the spread of false information over digital platforms.

In a statement issued on Jan. 7, Meta announced its decision to end the current third-party fact-checking program in the US and replace it with a system of “community notes” generated from users; an approach used by Elon Musk’s social media platform X.

"We've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It's time to get back to our roots around free expression," Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video accompanying the statement.

The changes will affect Facebook, Instagram and Threads, three of the world’s largest social media platforms with more than 3 billion users globally.

The decision was met with criticism from cekfakta.com, an official fact-checking website created in a collaborative project involving dozens of mainstream media organizations in Indonesia. The group said shutting down the fact-checking program in the US may lead to similar decisions for the company’s programs in other countries.

“Such a policy can weaken the efforts to fight against false information in Meta platforms, especially in countries with low levels of digital literacy,” cekfakta.com wrote in a statement issued on Friday.

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“This policy from Meta may also trigger the massive spread of hoaxes and propaganda in the country, thanks to the huge numbers of users for the company’s platforms in Indonesia.”

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