META’S MODERATION COP OUT

From The Director’s Desk:

This is the first newsletter of our newly established Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CIIA). We are excited about our plans for the year ahead – but already January has been a busy month in the (dis)information space. Coinciding with Donald Trump’s inauguration as 47th president of the United Space, whose election last year ‘opened the disinformation floodgates’, the tech giant Meta announced that it would be rolling back its fact-checking system (for now) in the United States. Many observers saw this as part of the cosying up of an emerging Big Tech oligarchy around the new political power formation in the White House.

These moves also have implications for information integrity in the Global South, where authoritarian regimes might take encouragement from a global political climate of disdain for fact-checking, moderation and tech justice. Trump’s loose relationship with the truth could also be seen in his unfounded claims about land expropriation in South Africa, amplified by Elon Musk on his platform X and irresponsibly cheered on by local rightwing lobbyists Afriforum, leading president Cyril Ramaphosa to accuse them of misinformation.

Speaking of polarisation, disinformation and online hate, I have recently returned from a fellowship at the Centre for Advanced Studies at LMU University in Munich, where I was part of an international research team working on the topic of messaging apps, encryption and the enticement of extreme speech. It was an extremely enriching experience, and I will return to Munich in April when we aim to launch a policy report on moderation and regulation. The group was led by Sahana Udupa, with whom I have co-edited a book on disinformation and encryption on WhatsApp, which is due to appear later this year.

I hope you find our first newsletter interesting, and that you will subscribe to receive regular updates about our Centre.

Herman Wasserman, CIIA Director.

In The Spotlight:

 Meta’s Moderation Cop-Out Will Fuel Misinformation

 Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to alter its content moderation strategies drew sharp criticism from the international fact-checking community. A standout concern was that the new approach, which aligns with right-wing political stances, could fuel the spread of on Meta’s platforms.

In an article for LitNet, CIIA director Herman Wasserman unpacks how Zuckerberg’s new position on fact-checking will fuel misinformation.

What We’re Reading:

1. The alignment of tech companies to undermine global efforts for information integrity poses a great threat to Africa’s fragile democracies, write Liz Orembo and Nerima Wako.
2. Misinformation and disinformation remain the top short-term risks for the second consecutive year in the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Global Risks Report.
3. Meta’s updated approach to content moderation could exacerbate societal divides and silence marginalised voices in South Africa, writes Kavisha Pillay.

 Under the Influence – A CIIA Podcast:

In the first episode of the CIIA’s Podcast, Under the Influence, CIIA Director Herman Wasserman is joined by Cayley Clifford, Deputy Chief Editor of Africa Check, and Kavisha Pillay, Executive Director of Campaign on Digital Ethics (CODE), to discuss the implications of Meta’s updated fact-checking policy for users in the Global South.

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*This originally appeared in the CIIA’s monthly newsletter which provides a monthly roundup of the CIIA’s work and all the major talking points from the world of information disorder and information integrity. You can read the original here