--- title: "Facebook Shuts Down Machine Learning Systems for Identifying Viral Hoaxes" description: "Meta-formerly-Facebook has deactivated automated systems that proactively tracked and limited the spread of viral conspiracies." date: "2025-01-15" modified: "2025-01-15" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-systems-viral-hoaxes" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Future Society" - "Machine Learning" tags: - "facebook" - "mark zuckerberg" - "Meta" - "the digest" --- # Facebook Shuts Down Machine Learning Systems for Identifying Viral Hoaxes ![Meta-formerly-Facebook has deactivated automated systems that proactively tracked and limited the spread of viral conspiracies.]() *\Image: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* ## Hoax on You In response to the rising tide of social media-spread misinformation in the 2010s, the social media behemoth Meta-formerly-Facebook built machine learning systems that proactively identified and limited the spread of viral fake narratives. Now, [as reporting from *Platformer* reveals](), it's switched those hoax-tracking systems off. The automated systems have targeted bonkers — [and sometimes physically dangerous]() — narratives, like the eternally stupid Pizzagate conspiracy theory. By Meta's own admittance, the effort has been extremely effective: according to internal documents reviewed by *Platformer*, the machine learning tools have limited the spread of viral misinformation with an astonishing over 90 percent effectiveness. Meta hasn't publicly addressed the choice to deactivate its hoax trackers. But last week, as flagged by *Platformer*, the company's recently-promoted new Head of Global Policy [claimed in a blog post]() that Meta's torpedoed safety practices have unjustly demoted "too much content that our systems predict might violate our standards." "We are in the process of getting rid of most of these demotions," the blog adds, seemingly alluding to Meta's automated misinformation-limiting programs, "and requiring greater confidence that the content violates for the rest." ## Chain Letter Office The decision to axe the hoax-trackers was made amid broader, deeply controversial changes to Meta's overall trust and safety practices across its many platforms, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg — the Silicon Valley giant's "unimpeachable king," as [*The Atlantic's* Charlie Warzel recently put it](), given the billionaire's iron-clad corporate control over the company — characterized [in a video]() as a company effort to "get back to our roots around free expression." These allegedly free speech-oriented changes include the sunsetting of its third-party fact-checking program, as well as a [renewed allowance of dehumanizing language]() on the platform. Users across Meta platforms are now allowed to misgender trans people, refer to women as "[household objects or property]()" or declare themselves to be "[proud racists]()." Efforts to combat bad or harmful information, meanwhile, will be regulated mostly to a user-centered model reminiscent of X-formerly-Twitter's "Community Notes" system. Meta's move to phase out its automated hoax-tracking systems fits into this wider tapestry of Zuckerberg-led policy changes at the company. As it stands, it's unclear how these many changes will ultimately impact the day-to-day experience of Meta users, not to mention our broader information ecosystem. But they've certainly [curried favor]() with incoming president Donald Trump, who previously — [in a coffee table book](), no less — threatened to jail Zuck over false allegations of election interference. Allegations, by the way, that Zuckerberg will presumably have to rely on random Meta users to correct. **More on Meta's current vibe:** *[Facebook Is Creating Fake AI-Powered Black Women While Changing Its Rules So It’s Okay to Harass Real Ones]()* ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()