Fact-checkers in Latin America prepare for Meta’s next moves
This 180-degree change is a reaction to Donald Trump’s impending second presidential term and competing approaches, such as X’s Community Notes. Meta decided not to invest any more money in his program. Now, they hope that Facebook and Instagram users themselves will be the ones to decide what content is misinformation or not.
In the statement in which Zuckerberg announced he was dismantling the program, he said fact-checkers had succumbed to political bias, destroying more trust than they created out in America. However, for Laura Zommer, former director of Chequeado (one of the most important Spanish-speaking verification organizations) and LatamChequea, now head of reality check (a verification medium aimed at the Latino community in the US), Zuckerberg’s statement is not surprising and he has no scientific evidence to support his claim. “Instead of censorship, fact-checkers add context,” Zommer said. We never advocate the removal of content. We want citizens to have better information to make their own decisions.”
Zommer, who is skeptical about how disbanding the program could benefit Meta, emphasized that the company contradicted itself by ending the fact-checking program, especially because it has highlighted its positive results in the past. Zommer also agrees with Angie Drobnic Holan, current director of IFCN, who is on LinkedIn parcelwrites: “It is unfortunate that this decision was made amid extreme political pressure from the new administration and its supporters. The fact-checkers were unbiased in their work—the That attack comes from people who feel they can exaggerate and lie.” without refuting or contradicting.”
As Trump, just days away from his inauguration, threatens mass deportations of migrants, the Hispanic community is facing a potential new wave of misinformation. “The evidence makes us think this is going to be bad. Until it’s done, we’ll see, but we can say that, during the Trump campaign, one of the main disinformation narratives was against migrants, e.g. stories suggested that migrants would commit fraud. That is wrong. Data from the past makes us think that this decision could negatively affect the Latino community in the United States,” Zommer told WIRED en Español.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is not the only thing endangering the ecosystem. In an age where deepfake audio and video scams are spreading, having authentic information will be a top priority.
Spanish-speaking fact-checking media are at risk
The Latin American news ecosystem, with its economic vulnerability, is at risk. “Payments to Facebook’s fact-checking program are still helping fact-checking organizations and news organizations stay afloat. So I think, very likely, if organizations “If this organization doesn’t diversify soon, many of them will disappear,” said Pablo Medina, disinformation research editor at Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism, CLIP.
Although the decision currently only applies to the United States, the project’s disappearance has caused alarm in the Spanish media ecosystem. Tai Nalon said: “The attack expressed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on what he calls a ‘secret court’ that promotes platform censorship in Latin America—a false claim —shows that Brazil is the main focus of the company’s interests,” Tai Nalon said, CEO of Aos Fatosone of the most important fact-checking media in the global south.
“This is entirely consistent with the rhetoric of Donald Trump, a frequent detractor of journalism and fact-checking,” Nalon said. . Since there has never before been dissatisfaction with the work of fact-checkers, this seems to me to be a move to gain some political advantage. We know that Meta is facing antitrust lawsuits in the US and being close to the government could be an advantage for the company.”
Meanwhile, as Laura Zommer says, evidence from the past gives the news ecosystem reason to worry.
WIRED en Español reached out to Meta for this story. Through media representatives, the company responded statement (in Spanish) of the decision and said that this does not apply to WhatsApp and is only for US verifiers.
This story originally appeared on WIRED in Spain and has been translated from Spanish.
