Fact-checking: the end?

Proposed by the European Commission at the end of 2020, the DSA, or Digital Services Act, was adopted by the European Parliament on 19 October 2022. Among other things, it imposes obligations on large platforms (such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube) to “limit the spread of false information”. In practice, this regulation merely rubber-stamps a practice that had already become widespread since the COVID crisis, and especially since the start of the vaccination campaign: the censorship of content that “does not meet community standards”...

First domino: the takeover of Twitter

As luck would have it, Elon Musk completed his takeover of Twitter on 27 October 2022, exactly eight days after the EU adopted the DSA… These two concurrent events would mark the beginning of a merciless war between, on one side, the advocates of deregulation and freedom of expression, represented by Elon Musk, and on the other, the EU and the mainstream media, fervent defenders of censorship (coyly renamed “the fight against disinformation”).

The takeover gave Elon Musk the opportunity to reveal, through the Twitter Files, a series of internal documents exposing what went on behind the scenes of moderation on the platform. These files notably show exchanges with government agencies such as the FBI, and political pressure exerted by the Biden administration to censor certain content.

Elon Musk then fired, live, his moderation team, headed by Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s chief legal officer, known for her role in controversial moderation decisions, including the suspension of Donald Trump’s account.

The new moderation policy introduced by Musk aims to drastically reduce the restrictions imposed on users. He advocates a minimalist approach in which only illegal or dangerous content (such as calls to violence) is removed. Musk says he wants to make Twitter a digital public square that fosters freedom of expression, even if it means tolerating controversial speech.

This radical shift drew strong criticism, notably from the European Union, which pointed to the obligations imposed by the DSA. Major advertisers temporarily suspended their advertising campaigns on the platform, worried about the possible proliferation of content deemed problematic. Despite this, Musk maintains that Twitter, under his leadership, will remain a space for free and open debate, in contrast to the platforms he considers enslaved to institutional censorship.

Elon Musk’s interview with the BBC on 12 April 2023 clearly illustrates the clash between these two visions, while highlighting the ambiguities maintained by the supporters of censorship, who knowingly conflate the fight against hate speech with fact‑checking.

Breton: a bull in a china shop

A great champion of the DSA, Thierry Breton, the Commissioner for the Internal Market in charge of digital affairs, then made one blunt statement after another on what was nonetheless very slippery ground: while the DSA is in reality an anti-democratic instrument of control, its ambiguous wording and the inclusion of fact‑checking in a broader body of benevolent-looking rules had until then made it possible not to arouse too much suspicion before it went through Parliament. But subtlety is not the French commissioner’s chief quality

The climax came in August 2024, when Breton sent an open letter to Elon Musk ahead of an interview with Donald Trump on the X platform. In it, he recalled the legal obligations imposed by the DSA, mentioning the risk of sanctions in the event of non-compliance.

Musk, true to his provocative style, immediately hit back with an ironic tweet, denouncing what he saw as an infringement of freedom of expression and an abuse of bureaucratic power.

By revealing the true face of the DSA and exposing its absurdity, Breton unwittingly became the objective ally of the opponents of censorship. The Commission eventually understood this and was quick to distance itself from its embarrassing commissioner. The Commission stated that neither the timing nor the wording of Thierry Breton’s letter had been coordinated or approved by President Ursula von der Leyen or the College of Commissioners… Nor will it have escaped von der Leyen that it was not particularly wise to annoy the man who might one day become her new boss…

Deemed too impulsive and divisive, Breton then fell from grace. At the end of 2024, he was not reappointed when the Commission was renewed.

Second domino: Meta

By giving up censorship and resisting pressure from the EU, Elon Musk opened a breach that would gradually crack the edifice built by the European Union. In a competitive system, censorship-free networks enjoy a major competitive advantage: they attract more active members, whereas fact‑checking represents an additional cost…

Trump’s election, a few phone calls and the approaching Senate hearings would end up convincing the most compliant… starting with Meta.

In a video published on 7 January 2025, Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of the fact‑checking programme, declaring: “We’re going to get rid of fact‑checkers and replace them with community notes, similar to X, starting in the United States.”

Third domino: Google

In a letter to the European Commission in early 2025, Kent Walker, Google’s president of global affairs, followed in Zuckerberg’s footsteps and expressed the company’s refusal to comply with the new fact‑checking requirements. For Google, integrating fact‑checking “simply isn’t appropriate or effective” for its services. The company prefers to rely on its own content moderation tools, such as the contextual notes added by users on YouTube, a system reminiscent of X’s “Community Notes”.

The EU’s position becomes untenable

Once X, Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube refuse to play along, the EU finds itself in an untenable position. While the EU could still try to cut off access to X for residents of EU member states, the same cannot be said if it intends to cut off almost all social networks (not to mention that Musk could buy TikTok in the near future). Besides the unpopularity of such a decision, it would expose far too blatantly the reality of a democratic illusion that is necessary for the acceptance and survival of the current system.

A fight to the death

For what is at stake is indeed the survival of a system based on control exercised over the ruling classes and the media, a system that appropriates the ability to select the information deemed useful for achieving its goals and to dismiss whatever undermines them.

During a debate on the programme “C Ce soir” on 9 January 2025 on France Télévision, social media specialist Fabrice Epelboin described the situation in crude but realistic terms before a stunned audience.

How will the population react when the truth of information hitherto labelled fake news or conspiracy theories is revealed to the general public? Lacking the means to contain its spread, the current political class and the media rightly see it as an existential threat.

It is therefore hardly surprising to see politicians and the media crying wolf and calling Elon Musk a dangerous madman or an extremist.

It isn’t over yet, and those defending the old system still have a few cartridges left. However, their room for manoeuvre seems to be shrinking by the day, and the return of Donald Trump, banned from Twitter in 2016, is likely to make their task particularly difficult.

Marcan for BAM!