The Meta boss tied his axing of fact-checkers to the “cultural tipping point” of Trump winning back the presidency. Let’s hope he doesn’t tip the digital age into a dark age.
Humans have always been ambivalent about the truth. The tech giants Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk understand this shortcoming of humanity better than most. It’s become their business model, and now it is playing out in real time as they opportunistically navigate the incoming Donald Trump presidency., he aligned it with Trump’s election, which he called a “cultural tipping point” towards freedom of speech.
Zuckerberg’s decision to terminate fact-checking coincides with Trump’s return to the presidency. The Meta boss has donated $US1 million to the president-elect’s. No doubt that will help heal some old wounds, not least the one that Zuckerberg inflicted on Trump with the audacity of introducing fact-checking.But seeing this moment in history merely as political is lazy. Humans have always been susceptible, even partial, to misinformation. What is new is the speed and scale at which it spreads.
It was the late Democratic senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who said: “You are entitled to your own opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” But do facts still matter to us? Zuckerberg and Musk would have us believe that the fact-checkers are stifling free speech. But to hide behind “free speech” in order to reject empirical evidence – just because you listened to aBlaming social media is pointless.
Alexandra Senter is the chief executive of The Big Smoke Media Group, which manages media platforms and digital agencies. She is a regular commentator on television and radio.
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