Facebook is no place for politics

There was much jubilation yesterday among advocates of free speech following the news that Mark Zuckerberg is to relax restrictions on free expression on the social media platforms owned by Meta, including its most popular site, Facebook. This initiative will include doing away with politically-biased ‘fact checkers’, lifting restrictions on contentious political topics, and adding a function similar to ‘community notes’ on X.

Those who write and campaign on the importance of free speech, and whose livelihoods depend on this principle being upheld, were understandably delighted: Toby Young praised Zuckerberg’s statement as ‘fantastic news’ while Andrew Doyle welcomed it as a ‘step in the right direction!’ For my tuppence-worth, I should also be celebrating, having once been silenced by Facebook for a piece I wrote here on why men are funnier than women (it wasn’t a compliment to my sex, by the way, as those who read beyond the headline understood).