Latin American Fact-Checkers Brace for Meta’s Next Moves

This 180 degree change is in response to the second term of President Donald Trump and the ways of the race, such as X’s Community Notes. Meta decided to stop reinvesting in its program. Now, we hope that only Facebook and Instagram users will decide what is disinformation or not.

In the statement Zuckerberg announced that he was ending the program, he said that the researchers had succumbed to political pressure, which had destroyed more trust than it had created in the US. However, for Laura Zommer, former director of Chequeado (one of the Spanish-speaking certification agencies) and LatamChequea, and now head of Guaranteed (affirmative media that focuses on the Latino community in the US), Zuckerberg’s claims are not surprising, and he has no scientific evidence for his claims. Zommer says: “Far from prevention, researchers increase the trend.” We do not recommend removing content.

Zommer, who doubts how the end of the program will benefit Meta, emphasizes that the company contradicts itself by ending the real-time evaluation process, especially because it has shown good results in the past. Zommer also acknowledges Angie Drobnic Holan, current director of IFCN, who, in LinkedIn postwrote: “It is unfortunate that this decision is the result of a lot of political pressure from the new government and its supporters. Factcheckers are not biased in their work – the line of attack comes from those who think they should exaggerate and lie. without criticism or criticism.”

As Mr. Trump, just days before his inauguration, threatens to deport more and more immigrants, the Spanish people are facing a false predicament. “The evidence makes us think that this will be bad. Until it comes to fruition we will see, but we can say that, during the Trump campaign, one of the main disinformation stories was against immigrants, like those who said that immigrants will commit fraud. This was false. Which it happened in the past makes us think that this election could affect the Latino community in the US,” Zommer told WIRED en Español.

Anti-immigrant rhetoric is not the only thing that threatens the environment. In an era of widespread video and audio fraud, having useful information will be a priority.

Spanish-Speaking Fact-Checking Media at Risk

The Latin American newspaper, which is financially vulnerable, is in danger. “The cost of Facebook’s fact-checking program was to maintain fact-checking organizations and media organizations that have a fact-checking section. So I think that, perhaps, if these organizations do not manage to diversify soon, many of them will disappear,” says Pablo Medina, editor of disinformation research to Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism, CLIP.

Although the decision is currently in effect in the US, the end of the project has caused consternation in many Spanish communities. “The attack made by the CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg on what he called ‘secret courts’ promoting the monitoring of platforms in Latin America-false claims-shows that Brazil is the main sector of the company,” says Tai Nalon. CEO of Aos Fatosone of the world’s most important fact-checking media.

“This is completely consistent with the words of Donald Trump, who opposes journalism and fact-checking,” says Nalon. . Since there has been no dissatisfaction with the work of fact-finders before, this seems to me a move aimed at political gain. We know Meta is facing anti-social behavior lawsuits in the US, and being close to the government could be an advantage for the company. “

Meanwhile, as Laura Zommer points out, historical evidence gives reason to worry about environmental issues.

WIRED en español contacted Meta about this story. Through a press representative, the company responded with a sentence (in Spanish) of choice and said that this does not work on WhatsApp and is only for US verifiers.

This article appeared first WIRED in Spanish and translated from Spanish.