A regrettable factor in social media today is fake news. Unfortunately, it is about to get much larger, and we can do nothing to stop it.

Misinformation spreads around social media and gradually reaches more and more clueless minds that what they are reading isn’t true. Normally, the fact-checking feature stops misinformation from spreading through the social media site. For instance, it has caught and corrected false claims about COVID-19 and debunked conspiracy theories. As of Tuesday, January 7th, Meta has stopped using the feature.

Previously, according to CNN, the fact-checking feature was first enforced due to the false claims being spread during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, “Meta is repositioning the company for the incoming Trump administration.”

With the amount of misinformation that now will be spread widely on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, we can expect a surge in scandals and political unrest. This should be a cause for concern for all of us.

People worldwide will be fed misinformation every day and may not realize it.

Before this move, Meta employed an outside company which has caught thousands of fake Facebook accounts and fought many celebrity scandals or false political statements before they spread worldwide.

Not only did they change their fact-checking policy. Meta also updated its hateful conduct policy. According to CNN, Meta’s new policy now makes it acceptable to post content such as “women [are] household objects or property.”

The repercussions of these decisions will be felt globally, significantly impacting our collective knowledge and distorting our sense of reality.