WJC Responds to Meta Announcement on Content Moderation

NEW YORK — Reacting to Meta’s announcement regarding changes to content moderation on its platforms, Yfat Barak-Cheney, Executive Director of the World Jewish Congress Technology and Human Rights Institute (TecHRI), issued the following comment:  

“We have long been outspoken about the limitations of fact-checking systems, which have often been influenced by political biases and are far from ideal. However, the introduction of Meta’s new community notes feature must be approached with great caution. Platforms like X and Wikipedia, which employ similar user-driven concepts, have demonstrated how easily misinformation and disinformation can be manipulated, and putting the onus on the vulnerable communities to report and correct information online.

In an online environment already marked by hostility, we are deeply concerned that the reduction of protections and clear guidelines will open the floodgates to content that fuels real-world threats, including violent acts targeting Jewish communities and individuals.

Meta has made important strides in recent years to make its platforms safer, and it is critical that this work continues. Rolling back these efforts risks undoing hard-won progress at a time when vigilance against online hate and antisemitism is needed more than ever.”