Duval Times

Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-FL) of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence questioned Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg on fact-checking policies at Facebook and Instagram during a hearing on the responsibility of U.S. tech companies to help secure the nation from foreign influence operations in the upcoming 2024 elections.

Rubio focused his inquiry on content moderation, citing Meta's efforts to combat misinformation: "We’re constantly working to stop the spread of misinformation and disinformation. We have built the largest independent fact-checking network of any platform, nearly 100 partners from around the world, to review and rate viral misinformation in more than 60 languages. Stories that this group of people rate as false are shown lower in feed. Some pages repeatedly create or share misinformation. We significantly reduce their distribution and remove their advertising rights."

He raised concerns about how Meta’s policies would handle evolving information, referencing past claims about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic: "There were people at one point saying: 'I believe that the pandemic began in a lab.' At one time, that was considered not factual... How would something like that work today? Who determines whether that’s true or not?"

Clegg acknowledged the complexity of dealing with imperfect information: "As I said in my opening statement, we all inhabit a world of imperfect information... Information changes." He emphasized that Meta relies on independent fact-checkers vetted by third-party organizations and provided assurances regarding transparency: "We have a full list [of fact checkers]. Absolutely. We can provide them to you."

Rubio pressed further about government influence over content moderation: "If the government is telling you, 'This is a lie,'...and your fact checkers say it’s a lie, then my account gets blocked. It gets diminished. That would happen today, right?" Clegg responded affirmatively but noted improvements in handling such situations independently.

The discussion also touched upon specific incidents like the Hunter Biden laptop story. Rubio asked if similar actions could lead to reduced visibility for certain stories under current policies. Clegg confirmed temporary demotions occur to allow fact-checkers time to examine content but clarified that accounts are not taken down outright.

In conclusion, Rubio questioned whether those who incorrectly labeled content as disinformation faced any repercussions: "Did the fact checkers reduce or demote the 51 people who signed [the letter claiming Russian disinformation] because that turned out to be not true?" Clegg responded, "I don’t believe they did so at the time."