President Biden warned in his farewell speech of an "ultra-wealthy" "oligarchy" posing a threat to America as big tech CEOs have been warming up to President-elect Trump in recent months — despite his own administration accepting donations from Democratic mega-donors. 

Biden spoke Wednesday as reports emerged this week that Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg – the three most wealthy people in the world who collectively are worth more than $850 billion, according to Forbes – will be seated next to Trump’s Cabinet picks and elected officials next Monday at his inauguration. 

"I have no doubt that America is in a position to continue to succeed. That's why in my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And that's the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few, ultra-wealthy people. And the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked," Biden said from the Oval Office. 

"Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights, freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead," Biden continued. "We see the consequences all across America, and we've seen it before, more than a century ago. But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trust. They didn't punish the wealthy, they just made the wealthy play by the rules everybody else had to." 

BIDEN TAKENS SOLE CREDIT FOR ISRAEL-HAMAS DEAL, WARNS OF ‘OLIGARCHY’ IN FAREWELL SPEECH 

BIDEN'S BILLIONAIRES: SUPER RICH BACK DEM DESPITE PLEDGE TO RAISE THEIR TAXES

Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, have all met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida following his election victory in November. 

During the election cycle, Musk gave at least $277 million in donations to help get Trump and other Republicans elected, according to The Washington Post, which cited filings from the Federal Election Commission. 

Tech giants including Amazon, Meta, Apple, Google and Microsoft are reported to have donated $1 million each to Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. 

SOROS PUSHED $15M TO NONPROFIT LINKED TO BIDEN SUPER PAC TO TEST ‘CRITICAL’ POLICY ISSUES, TAX DOCS REVEAL

In 2023, George Soros and other prominent billionaires bolstered Biden's re-election efforts during the third quarter, filings reviewed by Fox News Digital show.

The deep-pocketed donors each cut six-figure contributions to the Biden Victory Fund — a joint fundraising venture that consists of Biden's campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), all 50 state Democratic parties and Washington, D.C.'s Democratic committee — between July and September. 

Later in 2023, Fox News Digital confirmed that a Soros-funded group pushed $15 million to a nonprofit tied to Biden's main outside super PAC for the 2024 elections to evaluate crucial policy matters, records reveal.

Tax documents provided to Fox News Digital showed that the Open Society Policy Center, an advocacy nonprofit in the Soros-bankrolled Open Society Foundations network, funneled $15.18 million to Future Forward USA Action in 2022 for research and "content testing on critical policy issues." 

That same year, billionaire Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder, dropped a massive six-figure donation backing Biden's re-election bid.

As far back as 2020, billionaires Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and investor Tom Steyer made substantial donations to the Biden campaign. 

BIDEN'S RE-ELECTION EFFORTS BOLSTERED BY MASSIVE DONATIONS FROM GEORGE SOROS AND OTHER BILLIONAIRES

For his part in the incoming Trump administration, Musk has been tasked with heading up the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which will examine issues of government spending, waste, efficiency and operations. 

In order to do that, Musk may occupy space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building right next to the West Wing that houses the bulk of office space for White House staffers, the New York Times reported. 

HOLLYWOOD MOGULS, BILLIONAIRES FLOOD BIDEN'S VICTORY FUND WITH SIX-FIGURE DONATIONS

Biden also said in his farewell speech that American leadership and technology is an "unparalleled source of innovation that can transform lives," but "we see the same dangers, the concentration of technology, power and wealth." 

"You know, in his farewell address, President Eisenhower spoke of the dangers of the military industrial complex. He warned us then about, and I quote, the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power, end of quote. Six decades later, I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country, as well," Biden added. 

"Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit," the president continued. "We must hold the social platform accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power. 

"Meanwhile, artificial intelligence is the most consequential technology of our time, perhaps of all time. Nothing offers more profound possibilities and risks for our economy and our security, our society, for humanity. Artificial intelligence even has the potential to help us answer my call to end cancer as we know it. But unless safeguards are in place, AI could spawn new threats to our rights, our way of life, to our privacy, how we work and how we protect our nation. We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy and good for all humankind," Biden said. 

Fox News’ Andrew Mark Miller, Joe Schoffstall, Jessica Chasmar and Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

A network of fact-checkers is set to lose a major source of revenue and may even close shop after Facebook parent company Meta announced it would terminate their contracts and move towards a system closer to X's Community Notes.

"We don't have much time left. At this rate, we are done in a few months," Check Your Fact managing editor, Jesse Stiller, told Fox News Digital.

"We were blindsided by this. This was totally unexpected and out of left field for us. We weren't aware this decision was being considered until Mark dropped the video overnight. We have no idea what the future looks like for the website going forward," he added.

On January 7, 2025, Meta revealed that it would end its fact-checking program and lift some content moderation policies to "restore free expression" across its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

CEO OF LEFT-LEANING FACT-CHECKER SAYS GOVERNMENT AT FAULT FOR CENSORING HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP, NOT FACT-CHECKERS

Prior to the announcement, Meta repeatedly stressed they were committed to supporting a long-term independent fact-checking industry to address "misinformation" online.

In an April 2022 blog post, Meta claimed it had built the "largest global fact-checking network of any platform" and contributed more than $100 million to fact-checking programs since 2016.

Meta did not reply when asked how much money it had given to third-party fact-checkers before announcing the end of the program in early January 2025.

According to the company's website, Meta began prioritizing "additional support and resources" for fact-checkers in early 2020 to combat health "misinformation."

As part of this initiative, Meta launched a $1 million emergency grant program in partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to tackle information about the COVID-19 pandemic.

IFCN created the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, in which nearly 100 fact-checking organizations in more than 70 countries produced over 11,000 fact-checks about COVID-19 across 40 languages. Seven fact-checking organization projects specifically focused on vaccine "misinformation."

META’S DECISION TO AX FACT-CHECKING SYSTEM, ADOPT MUSK-LIKE POLICY IS A BIG ‘WIN’ FOR FREE SPEECH: EXPERTS

In August, Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden White House had pressured Meta to censor some health information during the pandemic.

Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan in January that members of the Biden administration would "scream" and "curse" at his employees, demanding they take down information, especially during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine program.

Meta later gave the IFCN a $1 million "Climate Misinformation Grant." The grant, in part, provided funding to organizations working to combat "climate misinformation" and supported collaborative partnerships between fact-checkers and "climate experts."

The company also provided funding for fact-checkers to "increase their capacity to promote reliable information" ahead of the 2022 elections in various countries, including the U.S., Australia, France and India.

In the United States, Meta worked with the following third-party fact-checkers: AFP – Hub, Check Your Fact, Factcheck.org, Lead Stories, PolitiFact, Science Feedback, Reuters Fact Check, TelevisaUnivision, The Dispatch and USA Today.

All 10 of these partners are expected to lose their funding. It is unclear when or if Meta's changes will affect overseas fact-checkers.

INTERNET ROASTS NYT HEADLINE ABOUT FACT-CHECKERS RULING META CRITICISM OF FACT CHECKS 'FALSE:' 'BEYOND PARODY'

In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, claimed that these fact-checkers failed to remain neutral.

"We went to independent, third-party fact-checkers," Kaplan said. "It has become clear there is too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check because, basically, they get to fact-check whatever they see on the platform."

Since the pivot away from third-party fact-checking, several of these fact-checking organizations with financial ties to the tech conglomerate have issued statements critical of Zuckerberg and Meta's claims of political bias.

Previously, these groups were often paid for each published fact-check using Meta's platforms and tools.

For example, PolitiFact, according to its financial disclosures, earned over five percent of its 2024 revenue from the partnership.

PolitiFact told Fox News Digital that the organization, one of the original participants in Meta's third-party fact-checking program, will be affected by the company's decision to discontinue it.

META ISSUES SWEEPING CHANGES TO RESTORE FREE SPEECH ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

They also pointed Fox News Digital to comments made by PolitiFact parent Poynter Institute President Neil Brown, who called Meta's decision a "disappointing cop-out" that "perpetuates a misunderstanding of its own program."

"Facts are not censorship. Fact-checkers never censored anything. And Meta always held the cards. It's time to quit invoking inflammatory and false language in describing the role of journalists and fact-checking," Brown said.

Lead Stories, a Facebook fact-checker employing several former CNN alumni, told The New York Times that it is now doing a large chunk of its work for TikTok's parent company, Bytedance. Meta was previously the fact-checker's primary client.

The company was shocked by Zuckerberg's announcement, considering Lead Stories signed a new yearlong contract with Meta just three weeks ago. Lead Stories admitted that it would see a drop in revenue after severing ties with Meta—a reality that will result in a "staffing reduction," according to co-founder Alan Duke.

"Cutting fact-checkers from social platforms is like disbanding your fire department," he told CNN in early January.

META ISSUES SWEEPING CHANGES TO RESTORE FREE SPEECH ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Kristin Roberts, the chief content officer of Gannet Media (USA Today's parent company), said, "Fact-based journalism is what USA Today does best."

"We are the nation's trusted news source because we provide unbiased and essential content for all people. Truth and facts serve everyone — not the right or the left — and that's what we will continue to deliver," she continued.

The company did not provide information on its financial relationship with Meta.

TelevisaUnivision, Lead Stories, Factcheck.org, AFP – Hub, The Dispatch and Science Feedback did not return Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Reuters declined to comment.

Snopes CEO Chris Richmond said Saturday that the U.S. government was to blame for the censoring of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, and argued that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was complying with the administration at the time.

"Let's look at the most famous example of Facebook censoring content, and that was the Hunter Biden laptop story. And we say, well, it was fact-checkers, right, who told Zuckerberg to limit the reach of that? No, it was the government. So, Facebook complied with the government, and then the fact-checkers get the blame," Richmond told MSNBC's Ali Velshi on Saturday.

Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that the company would be ending its fact-check program on Facebook and Instagram. 

"If Kamala Harris would have won, would he be taking any of these same actions now? No. He complied with what the government wanted then and is complying what the new administration wants now," Richmond said.

TRUMP SAYS META HAS ‘COME A LONG WAY’ AFTER ZUCKERBERG ENDS FACT-CHECKING ON PLATFORMS

The New York Post published a report on the Hunter Biden laptop in October 2020 that was effectively buried by Big Tech, including Twitter and Facebook. 

Zuckerberg said he wanted to institute a program similar to Elon Musk's community notes on X, which Richmond said was a good system in theory.

"I agree that the community note system is great. It should be transparent. The problem is that Facebook has this black box system that they can do what they want and just pass off the blame, like we want a more transparent system. We should be pushing to community notes. But to say that you’re going to remove fact-checkers as part of the process, I think that’s where the issue is," he added. 

Zuckerberg spoke to podcast host Joe Rogan in an episode posted on Friday, where the CEO shared that members of the Biden administration regularly demanded they take down social media posts about side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Zuckerberg spoke further about the "government censorship," much of which he says has been covered by the congressional investigation, where he said, "I mean basically these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse, and it's like… these documents are, it's all kind of out there."

Zuckerberg summarized that the conflict between his company and the government "basically got to this point where we were like, ‘No, we're not going to, we're not going to take down things that are true.' That's ridiculous."

Fox News' Alex Hall contributed to this report

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's past comments on censorship have resurfaced following his decision to end fact-checking on his U.S. platforms, revealing a storied timeline of seemingly contradictory positions that appeared to put him at odds with his company.

As controversy swirled over his refusal to fact-check political ads in 2019, Zuckerberg asserted that Facebook did not support censoring its users, citing his belief that people were entitled to "make their own decisions" based on the content put forth.

"I don't think that a private company should be censoring politicians or news," Zuckerberg said in a CBS interview at the time. 

META ENDS FACT-CHECKING PROGRAM AS ZUCKERBERG VOWS TO RESTORE FREE EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

"I generally believe that as a principle, people should decide what is credible, what they want to believe and who they want to vote for, and I don’t think that that should be something that we want tech companies, or any kind of other company [to] do," he said in a Fox News interview that same year.

He also gave a speech at Georgetown University in 2019, slamming China for throttling free speech on the internet. 

In 2020, Zuckerberg doubled down on his position, stating in a subsequent Fox News interview, "I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online. Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that."

TRUMP SAYS META HAS ‘COME A LONG WAY’ AFTER ZUCKERBERG ENDS FACT-CHECKING ON PLATFORMS

But just one month after that appearance, Zuckerberg's company Meta, then Facebook, announced it was expanding its U.S. fact-checking program, touting it at the time as "a key piece of our strategy to reduce the spread of misinformation" on the platform.

In the aftermath of the January 6 Capitol riot in 2021, Facebook banned then-President Trump from the social media site. The company didn't reinstate Trump's account until January 2023. 

In April 2024, Zuckerberg admitted in a letter that Facebook was pressured by the Biden-Harris administration to censor Americans regarding COVID-19 content. Zuckerberg said he didn't support the decision, despite owning up to it, and expressed remorse for caving to the pressure from Biden officials.

The tech mogul's prior comments were thrust back into the spotlight this week after he announced that Meta was lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms by ending its third-party fact-checking program, admitting that their content moderation practices have gone "too far."

Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was first implemented after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said.

At the time of Zuckerberg's announcement on Tuesday, ten prominent fact-checking organizations were working with the company to moderate political content in the U.S. 

FACEBOOK ADMITS 'MISTAKE' IN CENSORING ICONIC TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT PHOTO: 'THIS WAS AN ERROR'

Reuters, USA Today, The Dispatch, PolitiFact, Agence France-Presse U.S., Check Your Fact, Factcheck.org, Lead Stories, Science Feedback, and ElDetector Univision comprised the team of third-party fact-checking partners, Facebook confirmed to Fox News Digital.

They were told to prioritize "provably false claims, especially those that are timely, trending and consequential. They don’t prioritize claims that are inconsequential or contain only minor inaccuracies," according to a Meta 2024 press release.

Many of these organizations lamented Zuckerberg's decision to scrap their program on Tuesday, slamming his attempt to avoid online bias as misguided and sudden.

Lead Stories editor Maarten Schenk outlined his disappointment and disagreement with the move, stating that he was only informed of the ceased partnership through media reporting of Zuckerberg's decision to cut the program.

"Lead Stories was surprised and disappointed to first learn through media reports and a press release about the end of the Meta Third-Party Fact-Checking Partnership of which Lead Stories has been a part since 2019," he wrote on Tuesday.

The Facebook fact-checker, who employs several former CNN alumni including Alan Duke and Ed Payne, has become one of the more prominent fact checkers used by Facebook in recent years. 

PolitiFact similarly derided the move, which ended their eight-year partnership with Meta, stating that Meta first hired them "to identify false information and hoaxes on its platforms."

Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute, the journalism nonprofit that owns PolitiFact, called Zuckerberg's statement "disappointing." 

"It perpetuates a misunderstanding of its own program," Brown said of Zuckerberg’s statement. "Facts are not censorship. Fact-checkers never censored anything. And Meta always held the cards. It's time to quit invoking inflammatory and false language in describing the role of journalists and fact-checking." 

AFP, a global news agency based in Paris, said they also learned Zuckerberg was scrapping the program at the same time as the public.

"It's a hard hit for the fact-checking community and journalism. We're assessing the situation," they told Reuters.

Zuckerberg's decision was widely celebrated by conservatives, who've grown frustrated with fact-checkers after a number of dubious practices sparked outrage from media critics and right-leaning online users. In recent years, some have charged fact-checking websites with acting as shields for the Democratic Party, with partisan intentions. 

‘BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS:’ A LOOK AT MARK ZUCKERBERG'S TENSE MOMENTS IN CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS

Conservative KTTH radio host Jason Rantz once called PolitiFact "Democratic Party activists who have chosen to weaponize what should be truly objective analysis" after the organization published several highly contested fact-checks against Republicans. 

Rantz, at the time, said the organization was one of the most "transparently partisan" websites available, often used by left-wing media to amplify political propaganda. 

When asked about the 2022 accusation, PolitFact’s managing editor Katie Sanders stated that the fact-checking website stood by its reporting. 

President-elect Donald Trump has frequently complained about fact-checkers, often griping about the people behind the moderation practice throughout the 2024 campaign. He celebrated Zuckerberg's decision to end Meta's third-party fact-checking on Tuesday, telling Fox News Digital that the company has "come a long way." 

Prior to Tuesday's announcement, Meta repeatedly touted its third-party fact-checking initiative as an effective system to "reduce the spread of misinformation and provide more reliable information to users."

All of the organizations, they said, were bound to the Code of Principles drafted by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which includes qualities such as "nonpartisanship, fairness, transparency of sources, transparency of funding and organization and an open and honest corrections' policy."

Meta's webpage promoting the program remains active as of Wednesday, despite Zuckerberg blaming the organizations involved for taking their moderation practices "too far." 

In the video announcing the end of the program, Zuckerberg pledged to "get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms."

Meta's chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, praised the move as a "great opportunity for us to set the balance in favor of free expression" on "Fox & Friends" Tuesday.

"We went to independent, third-party fact-checkers," he later told Fox News Digital. "It has become clear there is too much political bias in what they choose to fact-check because, basically, they get to fact-check whatever they see on the platform." 

"We want to make sure that discourse can happen freely on the platform without fear of censorship," Kaplan added. "We have the power to change the rules and make them more supportive of free expression. And we’re not just changing the rules, we are actually changing how we enforce the rules."

Kaplan said Meta is "ending that completely" and will replace it with a "Community Notes" model similar to the one used on X, formerly Twitter.

Meta's global fact-checking program will seemingly continue to run uninterrupted. The company did not respond when questioned about the future of the global program by Fox News Digital.

Experts and journalists hope Meta will continue to move toward free speech and avoid the content moderation policies that plagued Facebook under the Biden administration.

"Meta has a terrible history of censorship in the Biden era. They took direction from the government to censor COVID-19 content; they shut down the sharing of the New York Post Hunter Biden story; they used fact-checkers who accepted the word of the administration as fact and not opinion," New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz told Fox News Digital.

She said that while being "wary" of Meta's past mistakes is important, people should cheer the company's admission that they have "done bad things and would like to be better."

"I hope Zuckerberg has seen the light and will continue to move Facebook in the direction of free speech," Markowicz, who co-hosts Normally on iHeartRadio, said of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "It's also important to remember that there are companies, like Rumble or Telegram and then X/Twitter once Elon Musk bought it, that were doing the right thing even when it was difficult with a hostile Biden administration in place. Those companies should be celebrated."

META’S DECISION TO AX FACT-CHECKING SYSTEM, ADOPT MUSK-LIKE POLICY IS A BIG ‘WIN’ FOR FREE SPEECH: EXPERTS

Meta's third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, primarily due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system has "gone too far."

An April study from the conservative Media Research Center claimed that Facebook had "interfered" in U.S. elections dozens of times over the last several cycles.

The study said Facebook has "censored" 2024 presidential candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and 2022 Senate and congressional candidates. In 2021, Facebook "deleted Virginia gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase's account," and it "cranked up its censorship apparatus with special focus on Donald Trump" and "shuttered political advertising one week before the election" in 2020.

"It also artificially elevated liberal news in its Trending News section while blacklisting popular conservatives like Ted Cruz," the MRC wrote.

In August 2018, Facebook came under fire after the platform deleted a plethora of videos from the conservative nonprofit, PragerU. The company later reversed the decision, admitting that the content was falsely reported as "hate speech."

JONATHAN TURLEY: META'S ZUCKERBERG MAKES A FREE SPEECH MOVE THAT COULD BE TRULY TRANSFORMATIONAL

Republicans later claimed that Zuckerberg made false statements to Congress in April 2018, when the tech billionaire denied accusations that Facebook had engaged in bias against conservative accounts and content.

Like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram faced backlash leading up to the 2020 election after the company throttled access to the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story.  

Zuckerberg later told podcast host Joe Rogan that he had decided to censor the New York Post story after the FBI warned him about "a potential Russian disinformation operation" regarding the Biden family and Burisma.

"It's since been made clear that the reporting was not Russian disinformation, and in retrospect, we shouldn't have demoted the story," Zuckerberg wrote. "We've changed our policies and processes to make sure this doesn't happen again – for instance, we no longer temporarily demote things in the U.S. while waiting for fact-checkers," he said.

Last year, the Meta CEO sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee in which he admitted that he felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID content, and even items like satire and humor.

CONSERVATIVES REJOICE OVER 'JAW DROPPING' META CENSORSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT: 'HUGE WIN FOR FREE SPEECH'

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Zuckerberg told CBS anchor Gayle King that his platform had removed 18 million posts containing "misinformation" about the virus.

In 2022, several state attorneys general compiled evidence alleging that Zuckerberg coordinated with former National Institution of Allergy and Infectious Disease Director Dr. Anthony Fauci to "discredit and suppress" the theory that the COVID-19 virus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China.

Zuckerberg on Tuesday announced that Meta would end its fact-checking program and lift content moderation policies to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms.

Fact-checking organizations that had their contracts terminated by Meta said they were disappointed by the news and scoffed at accusations of bias. They also redirected the blame back at Meta, suggesting that the company's policies that limit the exposure of flagged content were the real catalyst behind the tech corporation's censorship.

Experts who spoke with Fox News Digital acknowledged Meta's culpability in suppressing information but criticized fact-checkers for tailoring their ratings to personal beliefs and opinions.

TRUMP SAYS META HAS ‘COME A LONG WAY’ AFTER ZUCKERBERG ENDS FACT-CHECKING ON PLATFORMS

"These fact-checkers have brought this on themselves," MRC Free Speech Vice President Dan Schneider said. "They've pretended that they're not biased. They've pretended that they're being fair brokers. All the evidence is to the contrary."

Zuckerberg's announcement that Meta would replace fact-checking groups with a system closer to X's Community Notes has sparked mixed reactions. While some have characterized it as a significant step-up from the potential biases of fact-checking organizations, others suggest Meta has pulled the guardrails off their content moderation ambitions.

DataGrade CEO Joe Toscano, a former Google consultant, said that while he believes it is the "right move" for Meta and that a Community Notes-style system is an "interesting concept," it is bound to devolve into a "cesspool." A sort of "vox populi," Community Notes allows regular X users, through a sign-up system, to police content and provide context or corrections.

"Perhaps if Meta uses the notes intelligently, those notes can be used to train AI that they will then turn into a more robust content monitoring system, but I think that would also be a bad idea if that's something they're considering as a next step. The reality is that the internet is full of the loudest people in the room. There are a lot of people who simply lurk on the internet, read content, watch the drama, but never participate, and therefore their thoughts are never put into text or video that can train this AI," he said.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURE

"What we really need if we want a democratic content moderating AI is to get content from the people who don't make content on the internet – everyone from people who are centrist and quiet to political figures and high-level executives who don't have time to use the internet. But if we had that, we probably would never have had these problems in the first place, and that's why this problem is so hard," Toscano added. 

Marcowicz was more optimistic, calling Community Notes on X an "excellent" approach and suggesting the new system is unlikely to be worse than Facebook and Instagram's current model.

"X has managed to utilize its best users to contribute to the Community Notes system and Facebook should attempt something similar," she continued. "Not everyone gets to put up Community Notes, or the system can be overrun by a mob, and that's what makes the whole thing so useful."

Meta CEO founder Mark Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan that members of President Biden's administration yelled at his employees, demanding they take down content on their behalf.

Meta announced Tuesday that it would be ending its controversial fact-checking practices and lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have "gone too far." Zuckerberg spoke about the platform's struggles to maintain freedom of expression while fending off pressure from the Biden administration amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"During the Biden administration, when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program," the social media CEO said, "while they were trying to push that program they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it. And they pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly, were true. They basically pushed us and said, you know, that ‘anything saying that says vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.’ And I was just like ‘We’re not going to do that, we’re clearly not going to do that, I mean that is kind of inarguably true."

FACEBOOK ADMITS 'MISTAKE' IN CENSORING ICONIC TRUMP ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT PHOTO: 'THIS WAS AN ERROR'

"Who is they?" Rogan asked. "Who was telling you to take down things that talk about vaccine side effects?"

"It was people in the Biden administration," the Meta CEO said.

He then spoke further about the "government censorship," much of which he says has been covered by the congressional investigation, where he said, "I mean basically these people from the Biden administration would call up our team and like scream at them and curse, and it's like… these documents are, it's all kind of out there."

Zuckerberg summarized that the conflict between his company and the government "basically got to this point where we were like, ‘No, we're not going to, we're not going to take down things that are true.' That's ridiculous."

FACEBOOK HAS ‘INTERFERED’ WITH US ELECTIONS 39 TIMES SINCE 2008: STUDY

Rogan later asked about the response after the investigation, "was anybody held accountable? Was there any, I mean any repercussions?"

"I mean they lost the election," Zuckerberg joked.

Americans had mixed reactions to Meta's decision to end its fact-checking program this week, with some telling Fox News Digital that the move was concerning. 

"Free speech should be absolute," one respondent told Fox News Digital in Texas. "I don't think anybody has the authority to censor anybody."

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday that it would be ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have "gone too far." Zuckerberg said the new system for Meta would be similar to Elon Musk's Community Notes on X. 

"I like the fact of getting rid of fact-checkers. The fact-checkers weren't really doing much fact-checking, only whoever paid them to fact-check," Rudy told Fox News Digital. "Sounds to me like they can't be trusted. The same thing, just dialed down, a little too late to be doing that. But I think it's better than what they had."

INTERNET ROASTS NYT HEADLINE ABOUT FACT-CHECKERS RULING META CRITICISM OF FACT CHECKS 'FALSE:' 'BEYOND PARODY'

Other Americans told Fox News Digital that the announcement was disappointing. 

"That disappoints me, because you want all your social media to be fact-checked as best as possible so you get accurate information. It really concerns me that Facebook may not, you know, go through that process of fact checking, like it should, I believe," Greg told Fox News Digital. 

Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system has "gone too far." 

Multiple people told Fox News Digital they had not heard about Meta's announcement yet.

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"Honestly, a couple of years ago, I probably would have said, 'Well, it's a private company. They have a right to do what they want and people should use their own brains to figure out what's right and what's not, what's true.' But, I'm a psychology student, and I started realizing that people don't always stop and think for themselves, so maybe they need someone else to fact-check for them. So, yeah, it's concerning," Melissa said. 

Fox News Digital also asked Texas residents about Zuckerberg moving Meta's content moderation team to their state. 

"Yeah, we'll give them a chance and see what the outcome is," Greg said. "I've dropped all my social media, you know, just because it's not fact-checked and it's not policed as well as I believe it should be."

Another Texan, Madeline, told Fox News Digital that Zuckerberg was most likely moving to Texas because businesses are "easier to run" in the state and questioned his reasoning for moving their operation from California.

Elizabeth Heckman reported from Texas.

Fox News' Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

In 2022, Elon Musk acquired Twitter and made a series of changes to the platform, including changing its name to X and introducing Community Notes, which is a feature that allows users to add context or fact-check potentially misleading posts.

This approach differs from Meta’s model, which relies on third-party, independent fact-checking organizations to flag misleading posts on Instagram, Facebook and Threads (its rival to X). 

However, CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that Meta will stop working with these organizations and instead implement an X-like Community Notes feature. Zuckerberg also revealed a series of other major changes to the company's moderation policies and practices, aimed at offering people more freedom of expression.

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Zuckerberg announced Tuesday that the social media company would stop working with third-party fact-checking organizations. In a video posted on Instagram and Facebook, Zuckerberg said the company's content moderation approach resulted too often in "censorship."

"After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth," Zuckerberg said. "But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the U.S."

Zuckerberg said that Meta will end its fact-checking program with trusted partners and replace it with a community-driven system similar to X’s Community Notes.

For the unaware, Community Notes on X allows users to collaboratively add context or fact-check potentially misleading posts. When a tweet is flagged for misinformation or lack of context, users can submit notes that provide additional information or correct inaccuracies. 

These notes are then reviewed by other users, who can upvote or downvote the contributions based on their helpfulness and accuracy. If a note receives enough support, it becomes visible beneath the original tweet, offering a balanced view and helping to inform others.

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Independent fact-checkers, however, aren’t happy with the change.

"Fact-checking journalism has never censored or removed posts; it’s added information and context to controversial claims, and it’s debunked hoax content and conspiracy theories. The fact-checkers used by Meta follow a code of principles requiring nonpartisanship and transparency," said Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network.

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Zuckerberg also revealed plans to overhaul Meta's recommendation system, which determines the content shown to users. For years, the company has restricted political content, citing user feedback and concerns about the impact of social media on beliefs.

"We built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but the problem with complex systems is they make mistakes," Zuckerberg said. "Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people, and we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship."

He added that Meta would eliminate some content policies on controversial issues, including immigration and gender, and refocus its automated moderation on what he described as high-severity violations. The company will now take a more personalized approach to political content so that people who want to see more of it in their feeds can see it.

In addition, Facebook will relocate its trust and safety and content moderation teams from California to Texas. Zuckerberg also said Meta would collaborate with the incoming Trump administration to promote free speech globally, though he did not provide specific details.

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Meta's platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, have been more tightly moderated compared to platforms like X, which has meant less freedom of expression for users. The changes Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday aim to relax those rules, letting people share their thoughts more freely. This could lead to more offensive content, but that's the trade-off for more freedom. The introduction of Community Notes is a good change, too, as it gives users more control instead of leaving it to a small group of people who might be biased toward a certain political party or issue.

What do you think about the changes Zuckerberg is making to Meta’s content moderation? Let us know by writing us at Cyberguy.com/Contact.

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The decision by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to end Facebook's work with third-party fact-checkers and ease some of its content restrictions is a potentially "transformative" moment for the platform, experts said, but one that is unlikely to shield the company from liability in ongoing court proceedings.

The updates were announced by Zuckerberg, who said in a video that the previous content restrictions used on Facebook and Instagram — which were put into place after the 2016 elections — had "gone too far" and allowed for too much political bias from outside fact-checkers.

Meta will now replace that system with a "Community Notes"-style program, similar to the approach taken by social media platform X, he said. X is owned by Elon Musk, the co-director of the planned Department of Government Efficiency.

"We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship," Zuckerberg said. "The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point toward once again prioritizing speech. So we are going to get back to our roots, focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms."

META ENDS FACT-CHECKING PROGRAM AS ZUCKERBERG VOWS TO RESTORE FREE EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

The news was praised by President-elect Donald Trump, who told Fox News Digital that he thought Meta's presentation "was excellent."  "They have come a long way," Trump said.

Still, it is unlikely to ease the legal liability for Meta, which in recent months has been hit with the possibility of a multibillion-dollar class action lawsuit stemming from a privacy scandal involving the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. 

The Supreme Court in November rejected Meta's effort to block the lawsuit, leaving in place an appellate court ruling that allowed the class action suit to move forward. 

Meta has also been the target of multiple Republican-led investigations in Congress. Republicans on the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government probed Meta's activity and communication with the federal government and the Biden administration last year as part of a broader investigation into alleged censorship. 

The platform also came under scrutiny by the House Oversight Committee in August, as part of an investigation into claims that the platform suppressed information about the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump. 

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Combined, these factors make it unlikely that Meta will see its legal problems go away anytime soon, law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley told Fox News Digital in an interview.

"Facebook is now looking at a tough patch ahead," he said. "Not only do the Republicans carry both houses of Congress as well as the White House, but there is ongoing litigation in the social media case in Texas."

Additionally, the Supreme Court's conservative majority is also unlikely to be sympathetic to the views of Meta in any case centered on First Amendment protections and rights to free speech.

The House investigations and litigation have both forced more of Meta's actions into public view— something Turley said expects to come under further scrutiny in the discovery process in Missouri v. Biden, a case that centers on allegations of political censorship.

"That discovery is still revealing new details," Turley said. "So Meta understood that in the coming months, more details would be forthcoming on its censorship program."

Still, he said, this "could be a transformative moment," Turley said. 

"And an alliance of Zuckerberg with [Elon] Musk could turn the tide in this fight over free speech," Turley said. "And as one of Zuckerberg's most vocal critics  I welcome him to this fight."

EXCLUSIVE: President-elect Donald Trump reacted to Meta's move to end its fact-checking program on Facebook, Instagram and its other platforms, telling Fox News Digital that the company has "come a long way." 

Fox News first reported that Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across its platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have "gone too far." 

META ENDS FACT-CHECKING PROGRAM AS ZUCKERBERG VOWS TO RESTORE FREE EXPRESSION ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Trump said he thinks Meta's "presentation was excellent." 

"They have come a long way," Trump said.

Trump's comments come after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement in a video Tuesday morning, saying his company is "going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms." 

Meta plans to replace fact-checking with a "Community Notes" model similar to the one used on X.

Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system had "gone too far." 

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Meta Chief Global Policy Director Joel Kaplan told Fox News Digital that Meta is also changing some of its own content moderation rules, especially those that they feel are "too restrictive and not allowing enough discourse around sensitive topics like immigration, trans issues and gender."

"We want to make sure that discourse can happen freely on the platform without fear of censorship," Kaplan told Fox News Digital. "We have the power to change the rules and make them more supportive of free expression. And we’re not just changing the rules, we are actually changing how we enforce the rules."

Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make "too many mistakes" and removes content "that doesn’t even violate our standards."

He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation.

However, as for the timing of the changes, Kaplan told Fox News Digital the company has "a real opportunity now."

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"We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression," Kaplan said, referring to the incoming Trump administration. "It gets us back to the values that Mark founded the company on."

Last year, Zuckerberg sent a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, in which he admitted that he felt pressure from the Biden administration, particularly with regard to COVID-19 content, and even subjects like satire and humor. 

"The thing is, as American companies, when other governments around the world that don’t have our tradition or our First Amendment, when they see the United States government pressuring U.S. companies to take down content, it is just open season then for those governments to put more pressure [on their companies]," Kaplan explained. "We do think it is a real opportunity to work with the Trump administration and to work on free expression at home."

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Kaplan also said Meta sees "opportunities for partnership" with the Trump administration, not only on issues of free expression but also in "promoting American business and America’s technological edge." 

"Those are issues of great importance to Meta and our sector," Kaplan said. "And we’re excited to work with the Trump administration to advance those goals."

Meanwhile, Meta also said it plans to take a more personalized approach to political content, so that users who want to see more posts of that kind can do so.

Meta said it will refocus its enforcement efforts to "illegal and high-severity violations."

Meanwhile, this week, Trump ally UFC CEO Dana White joined Meta’s board. 

"I love social media," White wrote. "And I’m excited to be a small part of the future of AI and emerging technologies."

Also joining the Meta board is former Microsoft Corp. executive Charlie Songhurst, who has been working with the company already on artificial intelligence products, and Exov NV CEO John Elkann. Elkann’s company has stakes in many European businesses, including Ferrari NV and Italy’s popular soccer team, Juventus Football Club. 

Conservatives on social media took a victory lap on Tuesday in response to the news that Meta had ended its controversial fact-checking practices and promised to move toward a system more focused on free speech.

"Meta finally admits to censoring speech…what a great birthday present to wake up to and a huge win for free speech," GOP Sen. Rand Paul posted on X on Tuesday in response to news, first reported by Fox News Digital, that Meta is ending its fact-checking program and lifting restrictions on speech to "restore free expression" across Facebook, Instagram and Meta platforms, admitting its current content moderation practices have "gone too far."

"Jaw dropping—he explicitly says Meta will ‘adopt a system like X has of community notes’ because of the bias/abuse of 3rd party fact checkers," Independent Women's Forum visiting fellow Lyndsey Fifield posted on X in response to Meta’s chief global affairs officer, Joel Kaplan, speaking to Fox News Channel’s "Fox & Friends" Tuesday morning for an exclusive interview to discuss the changes. 

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"Nature is healing," Fifield said. 

"There is absolutely 0 chance this would have happened if Trump didn’t win," Abigail Jackson, communications director for GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, posted on X. 

"Here is the full video from Mark Zuckerberg announcing the end of censorship and misinformation policies," Breaking Points co-host Sagaar Enjeti posted on X. "I highly recommend you watch all of it as tonally it is one of the biggest indications of ‘elections have consequences’ I have ever seen."

"Zuck is committed to cleaning house," journalist Jordan Schachtel posted on X. "Question the motives or not, this is a very real commitment and it's good news for speech on the internet. Of course, probably not possible to pull off without Trump winning."

Meta’s third-party fact-checking program was put in place after the 2016 election and had been used to "manage content" and misinformation on its platforms, largely due to "political pressure," executives said, but admitted the system has "gone too far." 

Since then, the process has drawn the ire of conservatives who have accused the platform of politically driven censoring while pointing to several examples of content being silenced, including the bombshell New York Post reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which Zuckerberg admitted the Biden White House pressured him to do and later called the move a mistake. 

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Kaplan said Meta currently uses automated systems, which he said make "too many mistakes" and removes content "that doesn’t even violate our standards." He also said there are certain things Meta will continue to moderate, like posts relating to terrorism, illegal drugs and child sexual exploitation.

Zuckerberg also pointed out in his video message on Tuesday that moderation teams will be moving from California to Texas, where he suggested there will be "less concern about the bias of our teams."

"We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms," Zuckerberg said. "More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with Community Notes similar to X, starting in the U.S." 

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

Companies that previously feuded with President-elect Trump are now making seven-figure donations to his 2025 inauguration.

Trump has butted heads with several Fortune 500 company executives over the years, but following his presidential election victory in November, some of those same big-business leaders are dropping major cash on the incoming president's exclusive inaugural festivities. 

"In the first term, everyone was fighting me. This time, everyone wants to be my friend," Trump recently said at Mar-a-Lago, according to The Washington Post.

Meta, the world's largest social media network headed by Mark Zuckerberg, suspended Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in 2021 after the events of Jan. 6 — which Trump called an "insult" to his voters. In his new book, titled "Save America," Trump accused Zuckerberg of "plotting" against him in 2020. 

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"He told me there was nobody like Trump on Facebook. But at the same time, and for whatever reason, steered it against me," Trump wrote. "We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time he will spend the rest of his life in prison — as will others who cheat in the 2024 Presidential Election."

Trump, in his book, also accused Zuckerberg of "always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT."

However, the relationship appeared to change course as the election drew nearer. After Trump's Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt in July, Zuckerberg said Trump's fist pump in the air after suffering a bullet wound to the ear was "one of the most bada-- things I've ever seen in my life."

Shortly after Trump won the election in November, Zuckerberg met with the incoming president at Mar-a-Lago. Just weeks later, Meta donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund. 

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"Mark Zuckerberg has been very clear about his desire to be a supporter of and a participant in this change that we're seeing all around America, all around the world with this reform movement that Donald Trump is leading," Trump adviser Stephen Miller said during an appearance on "The Ingraham Angle."

Despite a yearlong clash between Amazon's billionaire founder, Jeff Bezos — who also owns The Washington Post — and the incoming president, the e-commerce company recently pledged to donate $1 million to Trump's inauguration fund.

After Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity in 2016 that Amazon was "getting away with murder, tax-wise," Bezos fired back at the then-presidential candidate.

Bezos, appearing at a technology conference, said that Trump's comments were "not an appropriate way for a presidential candidate to behave."

"Washington Post employees want to go on strike because Bezos isn’t paying them enough. I think a really long strike would be a great idea," Trump wrote in another hit at the billionaire on X, then Twitter, in June 2018. "Employees would get more money and we would get rid of Fake News for an extended period of time! Is @WaPo a registered lobbyist?"

The mood appeared to have shifted following the 2024 election, when Bezos said he was "very optimistic" about Trump's regulatory agenda.

"I’m very hopeful — he seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation," Bezos said at the New York Times DealBook Summit. "My point of view is, if I can help him do that, I’m going to help him."

When Ford agreed to make a deal to meet California's efficiency standards, the company defied then-President Trump's plans to push back on the state setting its own green energy standards for automakers. 

Trump voiced his opposition to the auto giant's decision, saying that Henry Ford, the company's founder, would be "very disappointed if he saw his modern-day descendants wanting to build a much more expensive car that is far less safe and doesn’t work as well, because execs don’t want to fight California regulators."  

Ford, one of the world's largest automakers, recently announced it will be making a seven-figure donation to Trump's inauguration in January. 

Other major automakers, such as GM and Toyota, will also make individual donations of $1 million to Trump.

Trump will also receive a $1 million inauguration donation from Intuit, whose stock recently dropped in November after it was reported that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was considering creating a free tax-filing app.