Meta’s sudden dismantling of its fact-checking program — announced by Mark Zuckerberg as a “cultural tipping point towards prioritizing speech” — reads like a quiet footnote to what history may record as one of the most staggering violations of fundamental rights in recent memory.

But while Zuckerberg frames this as a return to free speech principles, the damage of their experiment in mass censorship can’t be undone with a simple policy change.

This isn’t about vindication — it’s about creating an unassailable public record ensuring these tactics can never be deployed again.

Benjamin Franklin warned that those who would surrender essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.