Meta Execs Try to Reassure Advertisers Over ‘Free Expression’ Changes

• Meta executives met with advertisers in recent days to reassure them following some company changes.
• Meta has cut third-party fact-checkers and replaced them with community notes.
• It said it would let users see political content and lift restrictions on certain discussion topics.

A Meta executive says the company has recently met with advertisers to reassure them that the changes it has made regarding free speech won’t lead to harmful content running rampant on its platforms.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Nicola Mendelsohn, head of Meta’s global business group, said the company had been in contact with advertisers after CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta would stop using third-party fact-checkers on its platforms and instead rely on user-made community notes. He also announced that users would again have the option to see political content on their feeds.

“From an advertiser perspective, we’ve obviously been talking to them over the last week,” said Mendelsohn in a roundtable discussion with Business Insider. “What they’ve shared back actually is the reassurance that all the commitments that we have to brand safety, brand suitability on the platform, none of that changes.”

Zuckerberg posted a video earlier this month announcing some of the changes around content moderation. He blamed the existing systems for causing “too much censorship” and said it was time for Meta to return to its “roots around free expression.”

The company has also removed some restrictions on certain topics, such as gender and immigration, allowing users to post what could previously have been determined to be hate speech.

The changes sparked concerns among advertisers, the Financial Times previously reported. Mendelsohn said advertisers will still have control over where their ads are placed.

“So, for example, if you have an advertiser that doesn’t want to be next to societal issues, political issues, their ads won’t appear next to it,” Mendelsohn said.

Mendelsohn said the advertisers Meta had been speaking to wanted to understand more about what was happening.

“They wanted to get past the headlines,” she said, adding that it is “all still very early days” in the new era of Meta.

The changes around content moderation were among other broader changes at Meta, which included rolling back its DEI programs and a push to cut low performers faster. The company has ushered in these changes amid President Donald Trump taking power.

“From a US perspective it is a different political and societal change that we’re seeing there,” Mendelsohn said. “But from a company perspective, I don’t feel or see anything different.”

Got more insight to share? You can reach the reporter Hugh Langley via the encrypted messaging app Signal (+1-628-228-1836) or email (hlangley@businessinsider.com).