The social media platform’s boss Adam Mosseri told staff about the potential move this week, according to technology industry–focused business publication The Information, which cited a person who heard the remarks.

Instagram’s parent company Meta did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment.

In January, US President Donald Trump granted TikTok a 75-day extension to comply with a law signed by then-President Joe Biden that requires a sale or ban of the platform.

At the time, he floated the possibility of a joint venture running the company, saying he was seeking a 50-50 partnership between “the United States” and its Chinese owner ByteDance. But he did not give any further details on how that might work.

The Biden administration had argued that TikTok, which has 170 million US users, could be used by China as a tool for spying and political manipulation.

Opponents of a ban have cited freedom of speech as a reason for keeping the platform open.

In 2018, Meta launched a standalone app called Lasso to compete with TikTok but it was later shut down.

In a video posted alongside a blog post by the company on Tuesday, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said third-party moderators were “too politically biased” and it was “time to get back to our roots around free expression”.

Joel Kaplan, who is replacing Sir Nick Clegg as Meta’s head of global affairs, wrote that the company’s reliance on independent moderators was “well-intentioned” but had too often resulted in the censoring of users.

However, campaigners against hate speech online have reacted with dismay – and suggested the change is really motivated by getting on the right side of Donald Trump.

“Zuckerberg’s announcement is a blatant attempt to cozy up to the incoming Trump administration – with harmful implications”, said Ava Lee, from Global Witness, a campaign group which describes itself as seeking to hold big tech to account.

“Claiming to avoid “censorship” is a political move to avoid taking responsibility for hate and disinformation that platforms encourage and facilitate”, she added.

Emulating XMeta’s current fact checking programme, introduced in 2016, refers posts that appear to be false or misleading to independent organisations to assess their credibility.

Posts flagged as inaccurate can have labels attached to them offering viewers more information, and be moved lower in users’ feeds.

That will now be replaced “in the US first” by community notes.

Meta says it has “no immediate plans” to get rid of its third-party fact checkers in the UK or the EU.

The new community notes system has been copied from X, which introduced it after being bought and renamed by Elon Musk.

It involves people of different viewpoints agreeing on notes which add context or clarifications to controversial posts.

“This is cool,” he said of Meta’s adoption of a similar mechanism.

However the UK’s Molly Rose Foundation described the announcement as a “major concern for safety online.”

“We are urgently clarifying the scope of these measures, including whether this will apply to suicide, self-harm and depressive content”, its chairman Ian Russell said.

“These moves could have dire consequences for many children and young adults.

“Fact-checking organisation Full Fact – which participates in Facebook’s program for verifying posts in Europe – said it “refutes allegations of bias” made against its profession.

The body’s chief executive, Chris Morris, described the change as a “disappointing and a backwards step that risks a chilling effect around the world.”‘

Meta’s blog post said it would also “undo the mission creep” of rules and policies -highlighting removal of restrictions on subjects including “immigration, gender and gender identity” – saying these have stemmed political discussion and debate.

“It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms”, it said.

The changes come as technology firms and their executives prepare for President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on 20 January.

Trump has previously been a vocal critic of Meta and its approach to content moderation, calling Facebook “an enemy of the people” in March 2024.

But relations between the two men have since improved – Mr Zuckerberg dined at Trump’s Florida estate in Mar-a-Lago in November. Meta has also donated $1m to an inauguration fund for Trump.

“The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritising free speech,” said Mr Zuckerberg in Tuesday’s video.

Mr Kaplan replacing Sir Nick Clegg – a former Liberal Democrat deputy prime minister – as the company’s president of global affairs has also been interpreted as a signal of the firm’s shifting approach to moderation and its changing political priorities.

Kate Klonick, associate professor of law at St John’s University Law School, said the changes reflected a trend “that has seemed inevitable over the last few years, especially since Musk’s takeover of X”.

“The private governance of speech on these platforms has increasingly become a point of politics,” she told BBC News.

Where companies have previously faced pressure to build trust and safety mechanisms to deal with issues like harassment, hate speech, and disinformation, a “radical swing back in the opposite direction” is now underway, she added.