Anneshia Hardy | The Hardy Exchange
Now y’all, let’s talk about Mark Zuckerberg—our tech overlord who decided to bless us with his latest hot take: fact-checking is
apparently a threat to free speech. Oh, honey, bless his heart. That’s rich coming from the man who made billions letting your cousin share their hot takes about how 5G towers are controlling our minds. Zuckerberg's claim is easy to make, but much harder to support when we examine America's history.
Mis/Disinformation isn’t new. Throughout history, disinformation has been a powerful weapon used to marginalize, oppress, and disenfranchise communities. Let’s rewind to the Reconstruction era. Back then, white supremacists didn’t just use violence, they weaponized lies. They spread stories about Black people being “unfit” to vote, cooking up a whole mess of laws to keep us from the ballot box. And voila, voter suppression was born.
Fast forward to Jim Crow. The media doubled down, telling the world that Black people were dangerous and inferior. Oh, and they weren’t whispering either; they had megaphones. This wasn't just public opinion or free speech. These were deliberate narrative campaigns to entrench inequality and suppress dissent.
And don’t get me started on the eugenics era, when folks with fancy degrees, aka "education fools", pushed lies about immigrants, women, and disabled people being “genetically inferior.” Those lies got baked into policies that hurt real people, causing irreparable harm to countless lives. It was a calculated cruelty pushing policies like forced sterilizations and immigration bans that stripped people of their dignity and humanity.
Now, let’s talk about today, where lies have gone digital. Social media has become a hot mess express, and the algorithms are driving the train. Case in point, the 2020 Census. Misinformation spread like wildfire, telling undocumented communities that participating would land them in ICE custody. The result? Immigrant communities got scared, stayed out of the count, and lost federal resources.
And remember the 2016 and 2024 presidential elections? Disinformation slid up and down our timelines, targeting Black voters with false ads to suppress turnout. It’s like they studied our struggles just to weaponize them. That’s not free speech; that’s manipulation on a global scale.
Fact-checking is a response to these challenges, not a threat to free speech. It ensures that public conversations are grounded in reality, enabling informed debate and decision-making. Critics often confuse fact-checking with censorship, but there’s an essential distinction: fact-checking doesn’t suppress opinions; it challenges the spread of verifiable lies. Fact-checking isn’t silencing anybody. It’s just calling a lie a lie. And baby, some of y’all need to hear it.
When lies go unchecked, trust gets destroyed, and chaos takes over. I often say, whoever controls the narrative controls the power. Fact-checking empowers individuals to engage with accurate information, creating a healthier and more equitable public space.
And let’s not let Meta off the hook. Mark wants us to believe that rolling back moderation is about “free speech,” but let’s be real. It’s about letting the loudest, most misleading voices dominate the room. Meta could be a force for good, but instead, it’s out here acting like the friend who stirs up drama at brunch and then leaves before the check comes.
Social media platforms, like Meta, have a unique responsibility in the messaging ecosystem. With their vast reach, these platforms can either amplify mis/disinformation or help combat it. Unfortunately, as the CNN article highlighted, Mark Zuckerberg’s recent defense of rolling back certain moderation efforts raises serious concerns. Without robust fact-checking, these platforms risk becoming breeding grounds for harmful disinformation campaigns. Platorms like Meta have a social repsonsibility. If you’re running the world’s digital town square, you can’t let it turn into a circus.
The idea that fact-checking threatens free speech is not only misguided but also dangerous. As I mentioned, history shows us how misinformation has been used to hurt and dehumanize vulnerable populations. In today’s world, the unchecked spread of lies continues to undermine democracy and harm communities.
So no, fact-checking isn’t the bad guy. It’s the hero we need. It’s the backbone of democracy, making sure that when we debate and vote, we’re at least working with the same facts. Without it, free speech isn’t free, it’s just noise. And honey, we’ve had enough noise.
About the Author
Anneshia Hardy is a narrative strategist, scholar-activist, and social impact entrepreneur committed to leveraging storytelling and messaging for transformative social change. As Executive Director of grassroots communications and media advocacy organizations, Alabama Values and Alabama Values Progress, she leads efforts to strengthen the pro-democracy movement in Alabama and across the South through strategic messaging and digital strategies.
Co-founder of Blackyard LLC, Anneshia equips changemakers to amplify their impact in marginalized communities. With over a decade of experience, she has conducted narrative and messaging trainings for organizations like the NAACP and the Obama Foundation. Anneshia has also shaped strategies for landmark voting rights cases, including Allen v. Milligan. Rooted in the belief that culturally relevant narratives can drive equity and inspire action, she bridges academic insight and real-world advocacy to create lasting change.