Zuckerberg ‘bending the knee’ to Trump as Meta ends factchecking, says former US disinformation chief – live | Donald Trump

Donald Trump Jr is in Greenland, the Danish-governed Arctic territory that Donald Trump has mused about incorporating into the United States.

Photographers have captured the president-elect’s eldest son on a snowy tarmac in Nuuk, the largest city on the island that is an autonomous part of Denmark.

The Associated Press reports that Trump Jr is making a personal visit to the island, which Denmark has shown no interest in turning over to the United States. Here’s more:

The Danish state broadcaster reported that Donald Trump Jr’s plane landed in Nuuk, capital of the vast and icy Arctic territory that has some 57,000 residents. Local media broadcast footage of him walking across a snowy tarmac.

In a statement, Greenland’s government said Trump Jr’s visit would take place “as a private individual” and not as an official visit and that Greenlandic representatives would not meet with him. Greenland is an autonomous territory that’s part of Denmark.

Trump Jr is in Greenland for a day trip to shoot video content for podcasting, according to a person familiar with the plans who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Mininguaq Kleist, permanent secretary for the Greenland foreign affairs department, told The Associated Press that authorities were informed that Trump Jr would stay for about four to five hours.

Neither Trump Jr’s delegation nor Greenlandic government officials had requested a meeting, Kleist said.

The visit nonetheless had political overtones. The president-elect recently voiced a desire – also expressed during his first presidency – to acquire the territory in the Arctic, an area of strategic importance for the US, China, Russia and others.

The world’s largest island, Greenland sits between the Atlantic and Arctic oceans and is 80% covered by an ice sheet.

On Truth Social, the president-elect posted footage of his son’s plane landing, and wrote:

Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland. The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!

Nina Jankowicz, a former homeland security official tasked with fighting disinformation, said Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to end factchecking on his platforms was a “bending of the knee” to Donald Trump.

“Let’s be clear – the factcheckers have not ‘been’ politically biased as Zuckerberg suggests, but have been *perceived as such* because of politically motivated efforts to smear them, one that Zuck is now participating in and capitulating to,” said Jankowicz, who know leads the American Sunlight Project, an anti-disinformation group.

“Zuck’s announcement is a full bending of the knee to Trump and an attempt to catch up to Musk in his race to the bottom. The implications are going to be widespread. Factchecking was not a panacea to disinformation on Facebook but it was an important part of moderation. Bumpers are fully off the lane now. Fact checks don’t suppress speech, fact checks are actually more speech.”

She also noted that the end of factchecking has implications for news outlets worldwide, as several had deals with Meta to assess content on its platforms:

Facebook has already contributed to the demise of journalism and this will be the final nail in the coffin; newsrooms – especially outside the US where subscription models are difficult sells – get grants from Facebook to provide factchecks. That money allows them to do other journalism!

Meta is ending its practice of having factcheckers weigh in on disputed content on platforms like Facebook, with company leaders citing Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States as a reason for ending the program.

The social media giant rolled out the factchecking program in the wake of Trump’s first election victory in 2016, which coincided with an increase in inflammatory and inaccurate content on its platforms, often from conservatives.

In an interview given exclusively to conservative outlet Fox News to announce the change, Joel Kaplan, the chief global affairs officer of Meta who is a longtime Republican operative, said: “We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and [is more] a huge supporter of free expression.”

Founder Mark Zuckerberg said the factchecks would be replaced with community notes like those seen on X, which is owned by close Trump associate Elon Musk. In a video announcing the change, Zuckerberg said the “factcheckers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created”.

He also added that Meta would “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.

Here’s more on the decision:

Attorneys for Donald Trump have asked attorney general Merrick Garland to stop special counsel Jack Smith from completing his report detailing his investigations of the president-elect. Should Garland decline to do that, they propose that the decision to release the report be made by whoever becomes attorney general when Trump takes office.

The position is likely to be filled by Pam Bondi, the former top prosecutor in Florida whom Trump nominated to lead the justice department after his initial pick, former congressman Matt Gaetz, declined the job amid allegations of sexual misconduct and drug use.

We’ll find out if Garland will heed Trump’s request. The president-elect’s attorneys have also asked a federal judge to intervene and block the release of Smith’s report. Here’s more on their requests, from the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell:

Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump may be less than two weeks away from returning to the White House, but his lawyers are keeping busy with motions to frustrate the final developments in his lingering criminal cases. Yesterday, they asked New York judge Juan Merchan to delay the president-elect’s sentencing on the 34 felony business fraud charges he was convicted of last year, but their motion was denied and the hearing is expected to take place on Friday. The case, brought by the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, was the only one of Trump’s four criminal indictments to go to trial before his election victory in November. His prosecution in Georgia for allegedly meddling in the state’s election result four years ago has stalled, likely permanently, while special counsel Jack Smith dropped the charges he brought against Trump for allegedly hiding classified documents, and plotting to overturn the 2020 election.

However, justice department regulations mandate that Smith release a report at the end of his investigations, which could bring to light damaging evidence about Trump’s actions. Late yesterday, the president-elect’s attorneys asked outgoing attorney general Merrick Garland to prevent the report’s completion. We’ll let you know if Garland makes his response known today.

Here’s what else is going on:

• Donald Trump Jr is scheduled to arrive in Greenland today, the massive island that his father has talked about the United States buying from Denmark. We’ll see how that visit goes.

• Jimmy Carter will lie in state at the US Capitol today, with Kamala Harris laying a wreath on his casket and eulogizing him at 4.30pm ET.

• The House of Representatives will vote on the Laken Riley Act, an early step in the forthcoming Republican crackdown on undocumented immigrants that would mandate they be taken into custody by immigration authorities over theft charges.