They describe the social media giant's announcement about ending fact-checking in the U.S. on Facebook, Instagram and other Meta platforms as an act that does not consider the public interest and could pose a significant challenge to democratic society.

Following Zuckerberg's announcement, Croatian journalistic associations – the Croatian Journalists' Association (HND) and the Croatian Journalists Trade Union (SNH) – have sent a letter to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and relevant institutions, calling for the acceleration of the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) and for all necessary steps to be taken to protect the public interest, the integrity of the media space, and the rights of users.

The ministry and the AEM agency, which are in charge of the Croatian fact-checking platform project Točno tako that brings together 21 fact-checkers, emphasise that social media platforms are not media and should not be perceived as such in any way.

The ministry tells Hina that Zuckerberg's announcement does not signal the demise of fact-checking, which they consider to be extremely important as it offers citizens the ability to verify information and make informed choices.

Both the ministry and the AEM, in their responses to Hina, underline that Zuckerberg's announcement to remove fact-checkers from social media represents a potential significant threat to democratic societies due to the possible removal of restrictions on many forms of speech that Meta has previously considered harmful.

The AEM agency clarifies that Zuckerberg's announcement currently only applies to the United States and should primarily be viewed as a reaction to political events and relations in the U.S., as well as a business move that does not take the public interest into account.