Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg made some pretty major announcements about Meta. In short, moving forward, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will have looser content moderation rules, more political content, and no external fact-checkers.
While Zuckerberg has claimed that these changes will champion “free speech,” it looks like the general public is unimpressed. As highlighted by TechCrunch, interest in Google search terms like “how to permanently delete Facebook” has risen dramatically in the past 72 hours.
TechCrunch also highlighted a surge in user interest around ditching Facebook, with searches for “Facebook alternatives,” “delete Facebook,” “delete Instagram,” and even “delete Threads” all skyrocketing on Google Trends. According to the outlet, this means that search popularity has increased by over 5,000%.
Zuckerberg Responds to Criticism
As mentioned, these changes are getting a lot of backlash across social media. Over on Threads, Zuckerberg directly replied to a user who criticized the overhaul. “Meta and Zuckerberg are counting on the fact that it’s too hard for people to leave Threads and IG,” the user wrote. “Meta has us in a chokehold.”
In response, Zuckerberg wrote: “I’m counting on these changes actually making our platforms better. I think Community Notes will be more effective than fact-checkers, reducing the number of people whose accounts get mistakenly banned is good, people want to be able to discuss civic topics and make arguments that are in the mainstream of political discourse, etc.”
Moreover, he added that “some people may leave our platforms for virtue signaling, but I think the vast majority and many new users will find that these changes make the products better.”
Is he right? Only time will tell.
