San Francisco Frontiers - Australia frets over Meta halt to US fact-checking

Australia -- which has been at the forefront of efforts to rein in social media giants -- was worried about a surge of false information spreading on social media, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said.

"Misinformation and disinformation is very dangerous, and we've seen it really kind of explode in the last few years," Chalmers told national broadcaster ABC.

"And it's a very damaging development, damaging for our democracy. It can be damaging for people's mental health to get the wrong information on social media, and so of course we are concerned about that."

Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday the group would "get rid of fact-checkers" and replace them with community-based posts, starting in the United States.

Chalmers said the decision was "very concerning".

The government had invested in trusted Australian news providers such as the ABC and national newswire AAP to ensure people had reliable sources for information, he said.

Disinformation and misinformation had become "a bigger and bigger part of our media, particularly our social media", the treasurer said.

Australia has frequently irked social media giants, notably Elon Musk's X, with its efforts to restrict the distribution of false information or content it deems dangerous.

Late last year, the country voted in new laws to ban under-16s from signing up for social media platforms, which will face fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$32.5 million) for "systemic breaches".

But in November, a lack of support in parliament forced the government to ditch plans to fine social media companies if they fail to stem the spread of misinformation.

AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact-checking programme in which Facebook pays to use fact checks from around 80 organisations globally on the platform as well as on WhatsApp and Instagram.

Australian fact-checking operation AAP FactCheck said its contract with Meta in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific was not impacted by the group's US decision.

"Independent fact-checkers are a vital safeguard against the spread of harmful misinformation and disinformation that threatens to undermine free democratic debate in Australia and aims to manipulate public opinion," said AAP chief executive Lisa Davies.

T.Martin--SFF