Reddit co-founder says Meta’s end to third-party fact-checking is ‘very pragmatic’
"It is impossible to do fact-checking at scale, let alone in real time, as Facebook was trying to do," Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian told CNBC.
Reddit's co-founder says Meta's decision to end third-party fact-checking on its platforms was a "pragmatic" one, characterizing the move as a reversal of an unviable program.
In January, just days before Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president for the second time, Meta announced it would end third-party fact-checking on its platforms, a program often criticized by Trump and conservatives for what they say unfairly targeted right-wing content.
In a series of sweeping policy changes at the media giant, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced he would install a community-based system instead.
"It was a very pragmatic change," Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian told CNBC at the Web Summit in Qatar on Sunday, adding "it is impossible to do fact-checking at scale, let alone in real time, as Facebook was trying to do."
"In many ways, I think they were just winding back something that was a bad idea from the start because it was untenable," Ohanian added.
Meta launched its global fact-checking program in 2016 in a bid to tackle misinformation, and has since partnered with fact-checking organizations in more than 100 countries. The rollback will begin in the U.S., according to the company, and will not affect other countries yet.
Fact checking at scale is like someone trying to mop up the ocean. But the community based system is they asking for chaos.