Biden Calls Metas Ending of Fact-Checking Program Shameful

President Biden criticized Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta, on Friday for deciding to abandon its fact-checking program on Facebook and Instagram, calling it a “shameful” decision that undermines America’s commitment to telling the truth.Responding to a question by a reporter, Mr.Biden said he believed people in the United States “want to tell the truth.”Mr.

Biden told reporters he was concerned about “the idea that, you know, a billionaire can buy something, and say, ‘By the way, from this point on, we’re not going to fact-check anything.’”“And you know,” he added, “when you have millions of people reading, going online, reading this stuff, it is — anyway, I think it’s — I think it’s really shameful.”The president’s comments came during a news conference on economic issues that was followed by a wide-ranging Q&A session in which Mr.Biden defended his policy agenda as his term ends.The president insisted that he could have beaten President-elect Donald J.

Trump if he had continued to run for re-election, but added that he had stepped aside from the race in the belief that it was “important to unify the party.” Mr.Biden also defended sanctions imposed on Russia on Friday that he said would hurt President Vladimir V.

Putin’s ability to conduct the war in Ukraine and have a “profound effect” on the nation’s economy.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....