Are social media networks lying to you?

Zucks says Meta is getting rid of its fact-checkers and recommending more political content. Instead of relying on human moderation, Facebook and Instagram will tag posts with community notes, similar to X.

Ah X, the home of reasoned discourse and the unvarnished truth.

I’m all for community notes except when it comes to defamatory and illegal content. We’re all susceptible to bias, including shadowy fact-checkers whose political leanings are unclear.

When you stumble across a piece of content, evaluate for yourself if the source is credible.

But the thoughts of more political content popping up in my feed is nauseating, but I don’t use Facebook or Instagram much. Still, it’s one more example of how social media networks do what they like.

A few years ago, the rules were clear. More followers meant more views. You could reasonably expect a good chunk of your followers or audience to see your content.

Now, publish a post, and the algorithms test it with a small subsection of your audience. If that subsection likes it, the algorithm pushes it out to a larger audience. I stopped chasing followers when I learned that those numbers are mostly meaningless.

Writing on social is still a great way of building an audience. But it’s like renting an apartment; the landlord can change the rules anytime. I’d rather own the place. I also dislike over-reliance on variable algo. And, I’m avoiding channels that serve up politically content ad-museum.

LinkedIn is relatively free of political content, although the algo is similar to Meta’s platforms.

I like building on a platform where I own the relationship with readers or subscribers (or at least go steady). For years, that SEO. Now, it’s my email list. I run this newsletter on Kit, for reasons I explained a few days ago, but I’m writing on Substack regularly in 2025.

I like Substack, as you can start and grow an email list without spending money. Later, if you decide Substack isn’t you, simply click export and take your list (or audience) with you.

Telegram is ticking box number two for me. I don’t need to worry about the algo, and it’s 100% private. So, I’m growing a Telegram community for pro creators. 133 people are in it so far, and it doesn’t cost you anything. You can evaluate my content for yourself by joining here :)