Meta employees criticize the company’s new speech policy, board additions

Meta employees took to their internal forum on Tuesday, criticizing the company’s decision end third-party fact-checking on his services two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Employees expressed their concern after Joel Kaplan, Meta’s new head of global business and former White House deputy chief of staff under former President George W. Bush, announced the content policy changes on Workplace, the in-house communication tool.

“We are optimistic that these changes will help us return to that fundamental commitment to free expression,” Kaplan wrote in the post, which was reviewed by CNBC.

The announcement of the content policy follows a series of decisions that appear to be aimed at appeasing the incoming administration. Monday, Meta added new members to their boardincluding UFC CEO Dana White, a longtime friend of Trump, and the company confirmed in December that it was contributing $1 million to Trump’s inauguration.

Among the latest changes, Kaplan announced that Meta will ditch its fact-checking program and move to a user-generated system like X’s Community Notes. Kaplan, who took on his new role last week, also said that Meta will lift restrictions on certain topics and focus its enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations while giving users “a more personalized approach to the political content”.

One worker wrote that they were “extremely concerned” about the decision, saying that it seems that Meta is “sending a bigger and stronger message to people that facts don’t matter anymore, and confusing that with a victory for the freedom of talk”.

Another employee commented that “simply absolving yourself of the duty to at least try to create a safe and respectful platform is a really sad direction to take.” Other comments expressed concern about the impact the policy change could have on discourse around topics such as immigration, gender identity and sex, which, according to one employee, could result in a ” influence of racist and transphobic content”.

A separate employee said they fear “we’re entering really dangerous territory, opening the way for more misinformation to spread.”

The changes were not universally criticized, as some Meta workers applauded the company’s decision to end third-party fact-checking. One wrote that X’s Community Notes feature has “proven to be a much better representation of the ground truth.”

Another employee commented that the company should “provide an accounting of the worst results of the first years” that it needs the creation of a third-party fact-checking program and if the new policies prevent the same kind of fall from happening he repeats himself.

As part of the company’s massive layoffs in 2023, Meta also scrapped an internal fact-checking projectCNBC reported. This project would have allowed third-party fact-checkers, such as the Associated Press and Reuters, in addition to credible experts, to comment on flagged articles to verify the content.

Although Meta announced the end of its fact-checking program on Tuesday, the company had already pulled it. In September, a PA spokesman told CNBC that the news agency’s “fact-checking agreement” with Meta ended in January 2024.

After the announcement Monday of White’s addition to the board, employees posted criticism, questions and jokes on Workplace, according to posts reviewed by CNBC. Technology News outlet 404 Media reported first on jobs involving White.

White, who has led the UFC since 2001, has become embroiled in controversy in 2023 after a video published by TMZ showed him slapping his wife at a New Year’s party in Mexico. White published a public apologyand his wife, Anne White, released a statement to TMZ, calling it an isolated incident.

Commenters on Workplace have joked about whether performance reviews now involve mixed martial arts-style fights.

In addition to White, John Elkann, the CEO of the Italian car company Exor, was named to the board of Meta.

Some employees questioned what value the autos and entertainment executives could bring to Meta, and whether the addition of White reflected the company’s values. One post suggested that the new board appointments would help with political alliances that could be valuable, but could also change the company’s culture in unexpected or unwanted ways.

Comments on Workplace that alluded to White’s personal history were flagged and removed from the discussion, according to posts from the internal app read by CNBC.

An employee who said he was with Meta’s International Community Relations team posted a memo to Workplace about the company’s “community engagement expectation,” or CEE, policy for use the platform.

“Multiple comments have been flagged by the community for review,” the employee posted. “It’s important that we maintain a respectful work environment where people can do their best work.”

The member of the internal community relations team added that “insulting, criticizing or antagonizing our colleagues or members of the Council is not aligned with the CEE”.

Several workers responded to that note saying that even respectful, if critical, posts had been removed, amounting to a corporate form of censorship.

One worker said that because the critical comments were removed, the person wanted to voice support for “women and all voices.”

Meta declined to comment.

— CNBC’s Salvador Rodriguez contributed to this report.

WATCH: : Meta adds Dana White, John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst to the board of directors.