THE CONTRARIAN

01/16/2025

In his announcement, Zuckerberg said he did not want Meta to be the “arbiter of truth.” But he seems to conflate political opinion with verifiable facts. Certainly, people can debate policy issues and the virtues of candidates, but fact-checking is another matter. There is such a thing as truth. After all, Meta’s fact-checking policy was launched in response to Russia’s use of its platforms to spread disinformation about the 2016 presidential election. The Internet Research Agency was indicted for setting up fake accounts posing as Americans to disparage political candidates, undermine confidence in elections and sow discord. In response, Meta invested billions of dollars into fact-checking, using outside firms like Snopes and Accenture to reduce false content.

Since 2016, the threat of disinformation has not abated. In fact, it has only grown more sophisticated. During the past election cycle, the U.S. Department of Justice seized internet domains operated by a Russian companies Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog–colloquially referred to as “Doppelganger”–to spread disinformation by using artificial intelligence to replicate the web pages of the Washington Post and Fox News and fill them with false content. According to the Justice Department, Doppelgänger’s goal was to weaken support for Ukraine in the war with Russia and influence voters in the U.S. presidential election. Russian operatives posed as Americans and posted links to the counterfeit websites on social media.