Wednesday Briefing: Meta set to end fact-checking

January 8, 2025

	By Emmett Lindner and Justin Porter

Good morning. We’re covering the end of Meta’s fact-checking program and a deadly earthquake in Tibet.

Plus, 52 places to go this year.

Mark Zuckerberg standing at a podium behind a microphone.

Mark Zuckerberg, last year. Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Meta is ending its fact-checking program

Meta will stop using third-party fact-checkers on Facebook, Threads and Instagram. It will instead rely on users to add notes to posts that may be false or misleading, similar to a system used on X. Follow our live coverage.

The reversal is a stark sign of how Meta is repositioning itself for the Trump presidency, and few other big companies have worked as overtly to curry favor. The company recently gave a heads-up to Trump officials about the change, according to a person with knowledge of the conversations. Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, also said yesterday that Meta had added Dana White, the head of Ultimate Fighting Championship and a longtime friend of Trump, to its board.

Zuckerberg said that the shift would begin in the U.S. in the coming months.

“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression,” he said, adding that the current system had “reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.” He conceded that there would be more “bad stuff” on the platform as a result of the decision, and called it a “trade-off” that would also result in fewer “innocent people’s posts” being taken down.

Reactions: The move seemed to please Trump. At a press event at Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect said that Meta had “come a long way.” He also conceded that the change was “probably” due to threats that he had made against Meta and Zuckerberg. His conservative allies were quick to hail the decision. Many of them felt that they had been unfairly targeted by the program. Several digital rights groups condemned the decision.

Related coverage:

At a press event, Trump refused to rule out using military force to retake the Panama Canal and to force Denmark to sell Greenland to the U.S.
A New York appeals court refused to halt Trump’s criminal sentencing, which is set for this Friday.
A judge temporarily barred the special counsel, Jack Smith, from releasing his final report on Trump’s classified documents case.

Women being escorted by police men wearing face masks.

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, rescuers transfer injured people in a village in Dingri County. Xinhua, via Associated Press

At least 126 died in an earthquake in Tibet

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake yesterday killed at least 126 people in Dingri County, near one of Tibet’s most historic cities, in western China. At least 188 were injured. The quake was the deadliest in the country since December 2023, when 151 people were killed in a magnitude 6.2 temblor in the northwestern provinces of Gansu and Qinghai.

China’s state broadcaster said that at least 1,000 homes had been damaged, and rescue efforts were being hampered by logistical challenges. The remoteness of the area, along the Himalayan border with Nepal, made delivering resources difficult. With temperatures in the region reaching as low as 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 Celsius), rescue workers had a short window to locate survivors.

A crowd of people holding metal bowls, standing in an arid landscape awaiting food distribution.

Sudanese refugees from the Darfur region in Chad in July. Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

U.S. officials said a genocide took place in Sudan

The U.S. declared yesterday that the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group, and their allies had committed genocide in Sudan in their fight against the country’s military. The wave of violence took place in western Darfur, where men, boys and infants were targeted and murdered, and women were raped “on an ethnic basis,” Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State, said.

The genocide determination came after months of government deliberation as officials reviewed the merits of the case. The judgment might propel a new drive for accountability in Africa’s largest war, which has caused up to 150,000 deaths.

MORE TOP NEWS

A 2-by-2 grid of images of four different Canadian politicians.

Clockwise from top left: Mélanie Joly, Mark Carney, Chrystia Freeland and Dominic LeBlanc. Toms Kalnins/EPA, via Shutterstock, Jeenah Moon/Reuters, Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press, Blair Gable/Reuters

Canada: Here are four possible contenders to succeed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Immigration: The U.S. House approved a bill that aims to deport unauthorized immigrants charged with minor crimes.
Syria: The country’s main airport handled its first international flights since the fall of the government of former President Bashar al-Assad last month.
Taiwan: The government is investigating whether a ship linked to China is responsible for damaging one of the undersea cables that connects the island to the internet.
Environment: A multibillion-dollar expansion helped the Panama Canal accommodate king-size cargo ships. It might also be fueling an invasion of ocean fish.
Airlines: Two bodies were discovered in the landing gear compartment of a JetBlue plane after a flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the airline said.
Russia: A large number of soldiers return home as amputees, many suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. They face stigma and grueling rehabilitation.

U.S.: The body of former President Jimmy Carter is set to arrive in Washington to be honored in death as the city never truly honored him in life.

Sports

Soccer: Borussia Dortmund are among a number of clubs considering a move to sign Marcus Rashford on loan from Manchester United this month.
Golf: Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy have a new golf simulator league. What is that?
Tennis: Wimbledon wants 39 more courts, but there is strong opposition.

MORNING READ

Two women peering inside a window to watch a snake as its venom is extracted.

The Watamu Snake Farm in Kilifi County, Kenya. Brian Otieno for The New York Times

Snakes vie for many of the same resources and spaces as people do, often with dire consequences. Venomous snakes kill about 120,000 people a year, most of them in parts of Africa that are far from clinics and populated by people too poor to afford proper care.

The problem was mostly ignored until recently, but scientists are now trying to better quantify it. Read more.

Lives lived: Jean-Marie Le Pen, the rabble-rousing founding father of France’s modern political far right, died at 96.

Peter Yarrow, of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, known for hits like “Puff the Magic Dragon,” died at 86.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

An animated gif of a person sitting on a couch turning a page in a book. It is snowing outside the window

Illustration By Ilya Milstein. Animation By Jonathan Eden

Turn the page: Writers, artists and a social worker shared their favorite tips to help you start and maintain a journal.
The one who got away: Fleeing fraud charges, Samuele Landi went to sea and evaded extradition treaties. He took advantage of all the offshore world had to offer.
A dangerous byproduct: Mining operations in the Roman Empire led to widespread lead exposure. It might have been the world’s first case of widespread industrial pollution.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

A fading slideshow from our travel feature on 52 places to go this year.

Celebrate Austen’s England (and her birthday)

The author Jane Austen would have turned 250 this year, and celebrations abound throughout the year in southwest England. In bucolic Hampshire — which is home to her cottage, now a museum — Austen was at her most prolific as a novelist.

Austen’s former home is just one of the Travel desk’s favorite places this year. Its list of “52 Places to Go in 2025” also includes Assam, India, for tea gardens and pyramids, and Angola, for beaches and sacred waterfalls. In Koh Samui, Thailand, fans of the show “White Lotus” can walk the sandy beaches and jungle where the upcoming season was filmed.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Linda Xiao for The New York Times

Bake: This lemon cake needs no adornment (and barely an introduction).

Watch: Our top film critics made their picks for who they think should be nominated for an Oscar.

Protect: These are our favorite browser tools to protect your privacy.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Emmett & Justin

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