MARTIN Lewis has issued a warning to Facebook and Instagram users following a significant rule change by Meta.
The money-saving guru urged voiced his concern after the company’s head, Mark Zuckerberg, announced plans to eliminate fact-checkers and “reduce censorship” across its platforms.
The move would alter which information could be made public on Threads, Facebook, and Instagram, reports Birmingham Live.
Financial whizz Lewis says the policy switch up could leave people vulnerable to being “ripped off” by certain voices.
“This looks a seismic change. It affects all areas,” he warned.
“Focusing only on my work area though, having sued Facebook over scam ads in the past, is there’s no mention of scams here.
“Will this free up more people to be ripped off?”
In a video message, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, pledged to prioritise free speech following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
He announced that he would “get rid of factcheckers and replace them with community notes similar to X”, starting in the US.
He also revealed plans to relocate the tech firm’s content moderation teams from California to Texas “where there is less concern about the bias of our teams”.
The move echoes a decision made by Elon Musk, 53, in October 2023, as the Facebook co-founder, 40, looks to cosy up to president-elect Donald Trump.
Musk has grown close to the 78-year-old in the last few months, having attended his rallies and hosted online “conversations” on his social media site, X.
And he has even managed to secure a position in Trump’s new government, leading the Department of Government Efficiency – designed to reduce spending.
In a video announcing the changes to his company yesterday, Zuckerberg said: “The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritising speech.
“We’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.
He added that the third-party moderators had become too “politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created.”
Will this free up more people to be ripped off?
Martin Lewis
And Trump, who has his presidential inauguration on January 20, hailed the “impressive” move, remarking that Meta had “come a long way”.
It came after Meta’s announcement on Monday that UFC boss Dana White, a close friend of Trump, had joined its board of directors.
White has previously spoken at a Trump rally and can often be seen alongside the former president at UFC events.
Dawn Alford, Executive Director of the Society of Editors, said Meta’s decision is a significant shift in its approach to content moderation.
“It underscores the critical role legacy media plays in ensuring the public has access to trustworthy, rigorously verified information.
“In an era where misinformation can spread rapidly online, the work of professional journalists in holding power to account and separating fact from fiction is more vital than ever.
“Fact-checking requires expertise, context, and independence—qualities that cannot always be guaranteed in a decentralised, user-driven model like Meta’s proposed community notes.”
