Meta's new rules set up clash with UK and EU

Sweeping changes to the policing of Meta's platforms have set the tech giant on a collision course with legislators in the UK and the EU, experts and political figures have said.

- Robert Booth, Dan Milmo, Jennifer Rankin

Politicians in Brussels and London criticised Mark Zuckerberg's decision to scrap fact-checkers in the US for Facebook, Instagram and Threads, with one labelling it "frightening".

Changes to Meta's global policies on hateful content now include allowing users to call transgender people "it", and state: "We do allow allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation."

Chi Onwurah MP, the Labour chair of the House of Commons science and technology committee, which is investigating how online disinformation fuelled last summer's riots, said Zuckerberg's decision to replace professional fact-checkers with users policing posts was "concerning" and "quite frightening".

"To hear that Meta is removing all its fact-checkers [in the US] is concerning... people have a right to be protected from the harmful effects of misinformation," she said. "The fact that Zuckerberg said he's following the example of X must raise concerns when we compare how X is a platform for misinformation to a greater extent than Facebook has been."

Meta said it would rely on social media users to check each other's posts in a system of "community notes" similar to the one adopted by Elon Musk on X. It has prompted concerns over misinformation in the US on issues including elections, health, pandemics and armed conflicts, which could spill into digital feeds around the world, where Meta has more than 3 billion users.