Social media companies are receding from their role as watchdogs against political misinformation, abandoning their most aggressive efforts to police online falsehoods in a trend expected to profoundly affect the 2024 presidential election.

An array of circumstances is fueling the retreat: Mass layoffs at Meta and other major tech companies have gutted teams dedicated to promoting accurate information online. An aggressive legal battle over claims that the Biden administration pressured social media platforms to silence certain speech has blocked a key path to detecting election interference.

And X CEO Elon Musk has reset industry standards, rolling back strict rules against misinformation on the site formerly known as Twitter.

[The euphemistic language in the second paragraph is a passive-voice masterpiece. “Claims” that the Biden admin tried to “silence certain speech”? They engaged in constitutional violations of the First Amendment by pressuring platforms into censoring and suppressing dissent, and not just in elections but also on COVID-19 and other issues. The paper trail left by federal agencies has put this well beyond the “claim” stage. The lawsuit has exposed that and made these platforms vulnerable for legal liabilities, which is why they’re retreating now. And all of this happened not because Musk “reset industry standards,” but because he exposed the covert censorship. — Ed]