The mechanism: Content moderation is a cost center, and Meta just found a regulator willing to let it shrink one. Since Zuckerberg's January 2025 announcement ending Meta's third-party fact-checking program — replaced by X-style Community Notes across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads — the company has been dismantling a compliance apparatus built over nearly a decade: dozens of outside fact-checking contracts, trust-and-safety review layers, and the legal defensiveness that came with playing referee. That retreat isn't happening in a vacuum. Trump's Executive Order 14149, "Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship," combined with FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson's inquiry into "tech censorship" and FCC Chair Brendan Carr's push to narrow Section 230's liability shield specifically where platforms remove content, has flipped the political incentive. Under the old regime, aggressive moderation was the safe legal posture; under the new one, moderation itself is what draws federal scrutiny. Every dollar Meta doesn't spend on fact-checking vendors and moderation headcount is a dollar that drops straight to operating margin — and every content-liability lawsuit that Section 230 still shields is a legal bill avoided. This is deregulation showing up on an income statement.
Who cashes in: