Today, Meta announced a trial in Germany, France, and the U.S. to allow buyers to browse eBay listings on Facebook Marketplace and complete their purchases on eBay.
The initiative aims to give eBay sellers greater exposure to Facebook’s audience, while Marketplace users will gain access to a wider range of eBay listings.
This announcement comes while Meta appeals a $840 million fine issued by the European Commission in November, for practices favoring Facebook Marketplace.
Yesterday, the company also announced that it will be discontinuing its third-party fact-checking, citing concerns over political bias. Fact-checking will be replaced by Community Notes, to be written by Facebook members. Additionally, the company plans to relocate its moderation and safety teams from California to Texas. Meta also intends to remove restrictions on specific topics, including immigration and gender.
“What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas. And it’s gone too far,” Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a video yesterday, “A lot has happened over the last several years. We’ve built a lot of complex systems to moderate content, but they make mistakes, and we’ve reached the point that there are just too many mistakes and too much censorship. It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.”
In a company press release, Meta stated: “These changes are an attempt to return to the commitment to free expression that Mark Zuckerberg set out in his Georgetown speech. That means being vigilant about the impact our policies and systems are having on people’s ability to make their voices heard, and having the humility to change our approach when we know we’re getting things wrong.”
By CEO NA Editorial Staff
