Facebook And MAGA, Winter Virus Season, LA Palisades Fire
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Facebook and Instagram abandoned the use of fact-checkers tasked with keeping falsehoods off the sites. Mark Zuckerberg announced the change. How does it fit with his other moves as the Trump administration returns to power? I'm Michelle Martin, that's Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News. It's the season when people are hit by one winter virus after another. As one starts to go down, the other is going to start peaking, and we're just not going to get a break. We're like a series of snowstorms. How can you protect yourself?

Also, clouds of smoke hang over neighborhoods in Southern California. Tens of thousands have had to evacuate. The wind's been kind of swirling a little bit. If it turns to the south, then there's a lot of homes in danger. How widespread are the wildfires? Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. ♪

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The parent company of Facebook and Instagram is positioning itself for a new administration. Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who once banned President-elect Donald Trump from Facebook for his role in the January 6th attack, now says he favors more free speech. And he's ending a fact-checking feature that was designed to slow down the spread of false information.

Meta's move comes as Republicans on their way into power talk of a crackdown on tech companies. NPR's Bobby Allen is covering this. Bobby, good morning. Hey there, Steve. Okay, so what was Meta doing and what are they going to be doing now? Well, it used to be that posts that were flagged by enough users underwent a fact-checking process by third-party professional fact-checkers. And when they were done, the post got a label. Now that is over. In its place is what's known as a community note system. This was inspired by how it works on Elon Musk's X.

The fact-checking process is crowdsourced to regular users, and when the users reach some kind of consensus, a note is added to the post. That's big change one. Second big change, Steve, restrictions will be lifted on topics like immigration and gender identity. Currently, these protections are in place to curb hate speech. Now they are dismantled. In an Instagram video announcement, Zuckerberg says, Meta's speech policing has become too aggressive.

And we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship. The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.

And to say this is a big reversal is an understatement. After the 2016 presidential election, Zuckerberg himself came up with this fact-checking system. It followed revelations, of course, that Russia exploited Facebook to divide the country and boost the Trump campaign. Now Zuckerberg is abandoning the very fact-checking system that he helped create. Bobby, when he says he's responding to the recent elections, that's very close to saying that he's adjusting policies for Trump.

He didn't say so explicitly, but yes, Zuckerberg's framing is quite notable. In his video, he said speech is being censored on Meta's platforms. It's an allegation Republicans have made for years and until now an allegation he has fought against. Now, he is leaving some limits in place, one's

on speech that encourage crimes like terrorism, child sexual exploitation, and scams, but more lax rules also follow several other developments, Steve. Okay, Meta donating a million dollars to Trump's inaugural fund, Meta tapping Republican lobbyist Joel Kaplan to be Meta's

global affairs officer and putting Trump supporter Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship on Meta's board of directors. So take it all together. I called up Meta observer Brendan Nyhan. He's a political scientist at Dartmouth College. And here is how he sees it. Meta clearly perceives a great deal of political risk of being targeted and

the way Zuckerberg presented the announcements and its timing was obviously intended to play to a Republican audience. If we assume that Zuckerberg is acting out of business reasons here, what is the business case for currying favor with the president-elect?

Couple reasons. Trump has been attacking Zuckerberg for years. Trump believes Zuckerberg's measures in 2020 to combat disinformation and bolster reliable election information was a type of election interference. Trump even threatened to throw Zuckerberg in prison if possible.

Meta did the same in 2024. On top of that, federal agencies have been investigating Meta over whether it has used its dominance to hurt competitors. And one big case Meta is facing was brought by the Federal Trade Commission back in 2020, so during Trump's first term, and that case is set to go to trial in April. NPR's Bobby Allen, thanks for your reporting. Thanks, Steve.

The winter holidays are behind us. Winter definitely is not. It's cold and snowy in many places, and it's time for another annual tradition, the winter respiratory virus season. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein is with us now to tell us more. Good morning, Rob. Good morning, Michelle. All right, give it to me straight. How bad is it?

It's pretty bad out there right now. You know, Michelle, people love to travel and get together with family and friends over the holidays. The bad news is that often means they come home with some nasty bug. I talked about this with Dr. Brendan Jackson from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Respiratory season is here. It is getting to be in full swing now. A lot of people getting sick, a lot of people missing work, missing school, just feeling lousy in general.

And you know, Michelle, the flu in particular is spiking right now. Here's Dr. William Shafter, an infectious disease researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. We're buried with influenza. Things are very, very busy and intense. The emergency room is full of people who are coughing and sneezing. We've had people waiting on gurneys, those stretchers, waiting for admission. We are really full.

And it's not just the flu. RSV is still spreading at very high levels. So is whooping cough, a bacterium called mycoplasma that can cause walking pneumonia. And let's not forget COVID, which is starting to shoot up yet again. So how bad is it going to get this winter?

Well, you know, no one ever really knows what these viruses. The CDC says that unless some new COVID variant emerges, it still looks like this winter will probably be kind of like last year. But that's not great. It still means lots of kids missing school, parents missing work, grandparents and other vulnerable people ending up in the hospital and even dying.

Dr. Andrew Pavia studies infectious disease at the University of Utah. We've got three viruses that are going to hit with peaks that are going to be relatively closely spaced so that as one starts to go down, the other is going to start peaking and we're just not going to get a break. They're like a series of snowstorms. What it means, I think, is that we're in for a pretty miserable January before things start to let up.

But even then, a long tail, according to Caitlin Rivers. She's an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins. The winter respiratory virus season often peaks in December or January, but it lingers through the spring months. And so I do think we have several more weeks, if not months, left of this sixth season.

So Rivers and others are recommending people should do all the, you know, usual stuff. Wash their hands a lot, mask up in crowded places, open windows if they can, and of course, get vaccinated. It's not too late. Ron, before we let you go, what is this other virus that I've been hearing about?

Yeah, it's called the human metapneumovirus or HMPV. It's getting a lot of attention because of a surge of respiratory illnesses in the north of China. But the World Health Organization and the CDC say they aren't too worried about it. The WHO says the increase in respiratory illness cases seen in China is within the range expected for this time of year. HMPV can cause serious complications, but it's not a new disease.

but usually only causes a cold. It's nothing compared to the flu, RSV, and COVID, which according to a new CDC estimate is still killing hundreds of people every week. That is NPR health correspondent Rob Stein. Rob, thank you. You bet, Michelle.

You know, just before I went to bed last night, Renee Montaigne, the longtime former host of Morning Edition, sent over some photos from her neighborhood, images that showed orange-tinted smoke on the horizon in her part of Southern California. At least three wildfires are burning out of control in Metro Los Angeles. The flames are driven by a regular feature of life in the region, the Santa Ana winds. But

but tens of thousands of people have now evacuated. NPR's Liz Baker has the latest from Southern California. Liz, good morning. Good morning, Steve. What have you been seeing?

Well, right now I can see a really eerie orange glow on the horizon up to the north, and that's the Palisades Fire, which is the biggest one right now. Yesterday evening, I was out along the edge of that evacuation zone in Santa Monica where a crowd of people had gathered to watch the fire. Because these winds are so strong and blowing straight out to the ocean, you can actually see the fire pretty well if you're looking at it from L.A.,

And what you could see was just this orange zigzag running straight up the mountain like a lightning bolt. And every time the wind had a big gust, which was like all the time, you could see the fire flare super high into the sky. And, you know, airplanes were dumping fire retardant to try and stop it. But that fire ended up moving a little bit further south towards the populated city of Santa Monica. Parts of Santa Monica are now under evacuation orders. Also Malibu.

is under evacuation. Steve, you might remember that city just burned in a different fire almost exactly one month ago. Well, now they're getting it again. Wow. And the speed with which this happened is remarkable. One minute, nothing was happening. Another minute, I'm seeing these images on social media and in my text messages.

Yeah, I mean, that's what it feels like on the ground, too. We went into the evening last night with only one major fire, the Palisades Fire I mentioned, started Tuesday morning in the mountains and very quickly made a run all the way to the ocean. You know, unfortunately, the community of Pacific Palisades with over 10,000 households was in the way.

And then just all day yesterday, there were these little fires popping up and getting put down by firefighters. But then into the evening, the winds really picked up and a fire in Eaton Canyon flared. That very, very quickly became a problem for the communities of Altadena and Pasadena just below it. And I've heard from colleagues in their area who say that situation went from absolutely nothing to apocalyptic in under an hour.

So that's all the time it took for that fire to double in size. And then another fire took off further to the northwest. That one jumped the freeway within minutes, you know. Yeah. It's a lot, and it just seems like every hour or so a new fire is popping up. You know, there was even one across the street from the NPR Bureau here just for a little while. Okay. It's just this constant game of whack-a-mole for firefighters. I'm glad that one is out anyway. What is the damage so far as you can tell?

Well, it's really hard to tell. These fires are still raging. Certainly structures have burned. That includes even some beach lifeguard stations. Just to give you an idea of how forcefully these winds are sweeping towards the ocean, they're even hitting the beach. There have been reports of people getting so gridlocked trying to evacuate that they abandoned their cars, and we've seen footage of

Cars just being bulldozed off the street to make room for emergency vehicles. I spoke with one person, Dave Dawson, earlier today who hiked out of an evacuation zone from Palisades Village with his dog. Everyone's taking like two hours to get out of there. You can see the traffic.

The wind's been kind of swirling a little bit. If it turns to the south, then there's a lot of homes in danger. So this is really a worst-case scenario, Steve, and one that is just going to keep going at least through today. Okay. NPR's Liz Baker, thanks for the update. Be safe, please. Thanks, Steve. She's in Los Angeles, where there are wildfires in the metro area.

And that's Up First for this Wednesday, January 8th. I'm Steve Inskeep. And I'm Michelle Martin. Remember, you can listen to this podcast sponsor-free while financially supporting public media with Up First Plus. Learn more at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. Today's Up First was edited by Cara Platoni, Scott Hensley, Denise Rios, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Bach, Nia Dumas, and Lily Quiroz.

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