"Never ceases amaze me that apparently sane adults are in favor of misinformation and lies in the media. "

Its not a question of people being in favour of misinformation, but a question as to how best to combat misinformation. Anyone who has the slightest understanding of how so-called fact-checkers were used to suppress information the authorities sought to suppress would understand that fact-checkers are not the solution. But it seems that some (mikk?) are much more comfortable by being misled by people he defers to than allowing the community determine the truth or otherwise of this or that story.

One small example of the shenanigans that fact-checkers get/got up to... http://tiny.cc/32r4001

There are literally dozens of examples like this. Fact-checkers were a convenient way for the authorities to continue to lie to the public under the cover of stopping misinformation. Some people prefer it that way.

Thanks Dan, and the same to you and everyone else.

Puzzled by Mikk's comment. The sort of things Meta was banning from discussion included things we now know to be true, like the Lab leak theory on COVID, or issues where the mainstream consensus is different from the "fact checkers", like immigration, or that men can't be women. Remember when Meta blocked discussion of Hunter Biden's laptop as Russian misinformation? The way I read Mikk's comment he wants us still to believe these things to be "misinformation".

I find that hard to believe, but then, as Aries says, I'm an "idiot".

Pleased to read you admitting it Graham.

But in all seriousness, Facebook has a less than glorious history of preventing the spread of misinformation and hate speech. Mark has also gone so far as to criticise tRump publicly in the past. Now that the man is nearly president, Mark has very obviously got the memo and has moved to protect his empire. (Move fast and break things.) Lots of benefits to that - save heaps of $$$ not employing fact checkers - absolve himself from any consequences from the spread of misinformation and/or hate speech - and now that he has the blessings of Elon, he is spared the wrath of a vengeful president.

If this is your idea of utopia, I clearly don't share it with you.

The way I read Mikk's comment he wants us still to believe these things to be "misinformation".

Thats because they are.

Pretty much everything presented for our own good has nefarious underpinnings.
On this basis I'd say they have more to gain in power and profit by allowing free speech and data mining users content than they do suppressing users content.
- And they can better fine tune their AI.

Well it seems Zuckerberg really has been red-pilled. He's now announced that Meta is getting rid of its DEI department.

Meta will now hire and promote based on merit. Its an idea so crazy it might just work.

Some are saying this is all because Meta et al are now sucking up to Trump. Of course, it never occurs to these people that the alternative might be that they're doing it because they no longer have to suck up to deep state and the Democrats.

The Twitter files stories showed just how much Meta et al were coerced into towing the government line. We saw what happened to Musk and X when it stepped of the reservation and no longer bent the knee to the deep state and Democrats. Only the richest man on the planet was able to withstand that sort of pressure.

Now the pressure valve is released, and Zuckerberg is doing the right thing rather than the political thing. Let's hope it continues and expands.