MY unlikely to be affected by Meta's end to fact-checking, says Fahmi

Malaysia's social media sphere will reportedly not be affected by Meta's decision to scrap independent fact-checking, despite its possible repercussions around other parts of the world. 

According to Bernama, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said in a press conference that he sees Meta's move only affecting the United States, and not the Malaysian market over the next few months. 

In a statement earlier this week, Meta announced it would be replacing fact-checking with a Community Notes model in the US, an approach used on X aimed at allowing communities to decide which posts are potentially misleading and need more context. It also prompts people across a range of perspectives to decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see. 

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"We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing – and one that’s less prone to bias," the statement read. 

In a five-minute video posted with the statement, Zuckerberg credited Meta's move to the political context following President-elect Donald Trump's win, emphasising a commitment to promote "free expression" across its platforms. 

Fahmi reportedly said the idea of Community Notes was based on crowdsourcing and could potentially be a positive implementation as the public can actively contribute to explanations on content without it being buried in the comments section. 

Fahmi added that Meta has yet to contact him or other ministers to further discuss the matter, however, he reportedly assured that the ministry will be in contact with the platform for more information. 

Meta has also made headlines this week following backlash surrounding its initiative involving AI-generated accounts on Facebook and Instagram. 

According to media intelligence firm Truescope, majority of the public sentiments surrounding Meta's AI-generated profiles were negative. Some believed that Meta’s decision was primarily aimed at increasing profits by driving user engagement. This group feels that the company is prioritising revenue over enhancing the quality of user experiences, said Truescope.

Others expressed frustration, highlighting Facebook’s existing issues with "bots" and arguing that AI profiles could worsen these problems, further impacting the platform’s usability, added Truescope. Interestingly, a smaller group viewed AI profiles as a promising feature, believing that these profiles could provide value and innovation to the platform with further refinement.

Similarly, analysis by media intelligence firm CARMA found that netizens also expressed concern about the AI-generated profiles potentially deceiving advertisers and users about genuine engagement. Debates were sparked concerning the ethics of AI personas, especially when actual human interaction is essential for social media platforms, it added.

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