Meta is abandoning the use of third party fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram and will replace it with X-style “community notes”, where commenting on the accuracy of posts is left to users.

In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said “it’s time to get back to our roots around free expression”.

Joel Kaplan, who is replacing Sir Nick Clegg as Meta’s head of global affairs, wrote that the company’s reliance on independent moderators was “well-intentioned” but had gone too far.

“Too much harmless content gets censored” he wrote, adding Meta was “too often getting in the way of the free expression we set out to enable.”

The move to a community notes system will be phased in “in the US first” over the coming months, the tech giant says – it has not spelt out when or if it will be introduced elsewhere.

The system – which Meta says it has seen “work on X” – sees people of different viewpoints agree on notes which add context or clarifications to controversial posts.

The company’s blog post said it would also “undo the mission creep” of rules and policies – highlighting removal of restrictions on subjects including “immigration, gender and gender identity” – saying these have stemmed political discussion and debate.

“We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate,” it says.

“It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms”.

The changes come as technology firms and their executives prepare for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.

Trump has previously been a vocal critic of Meta and its approach to content moderation.

He called Facebook “an enemy of the people” in March 2024.

But relations between the two men have since improved – Mr Zuckerberg dined at Trump’s Florida estate in Mar-a-Lago in November.

Meta has also donated $1m to an inauguration fund for Trump.

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising free speech,” said Mr Zuckerberg in Tuesday’s video.

Mr Kaplan replacing Sir Nick Clegg – a former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister – as the company’s president of global affairs has also been interpreted by many analysts as a signal of the firm’s shifting approach to moderation and its changing political priorities.

In a statement announcing he would step down on 2 January, Sir Nick said his successor was “quite clearly the right person for the right job at the right time”.