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The news that Meta will no longer use fact checkers is scary but not surprising. Other media billionaires besides Mark Zuckerberg have already timidly caved to Donald Trump. Facts remain facts no matter how unwelcome to the incoming regime. Facts will squirt out somehow, somewhere.
Centuries ago, in a vigorous defense of a free press, the poet John Milton said “Let [truth] and falsehood grapple,” believing that truth would triumph. The contest is no longer equal. Meta’s abandonment of fact checking means that one set of lies and misinformation will compete for attention with other forms of falsehood.
But Milton’s ringing words in a time of censorship retain their worth.
Peg Cruikshank
Scarborough