Inside the Big Issue: Trust issues

Facebook used to have an internal corporate motto: “Move fast and break things.”

“The idea,” founder Mark Zuckerberg explained in a 2012 letter to investors, “is that if you never break anything, you’re probably not moving fast enough.”

The company, now known as Meta, dropped the slogan in 2014. But it seems that Zuckerberg – who kicked off the year by announcing an end to fact-checking on Facebook, Threads and Instagram – still doesn’t care what he breaks.

The sites will do away with moderation that identified and discouraged misinformation, the owner of the social tech giant Meta said last week, in favour of a community notes-style system like that used on Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter. This, he said, is in the pursuit of free speech and a rejection of censorship.

The censorship in question targets conspiracy theories and hoaxes, and the approach taken on X resulted in a mass exodus of users last year– including The Guardian, which no longer posts on the site – in response to the rise of far-right narratives allowed to run rampant. Meta will also adopt new guidelines across Facebook, Instagram and Threads which, among other things, explicitly allow users to call LGBTQ+ people “mentally ill”.

Trust in news delivered by social media platforms is falling. But around Christmas, we asked you, our Big Issue readers, what your thoughts were about Big Issue. Results were interesting and reassuring. One key word kept arising in responses – trust. You told us, in some numbers, that you trust our reporting to be factual and accurate.

In this week’s issue, we talk about why that matters in the age of “alternative facts”.

What else is in this week’s issue?

Labour says its new school uniform plan will save families £50 a child – so why are so many people against it?

Labour’s plans to limit the amount of branded school uniform items schools can require has sparked debate, with claims it will drive down education standards. In a move the government says will save families more than £50 per child, schools will be able to require no more than three branded items of uniform beyond a tie – not just items with logos, but anything distinctive that cannot be purchased from a range of shops.

Inside the UK’s first drug consumption room

Scotland is the drug deaths capital of Europe, with an average 277 deaths per million people linked to drug use in 2023. Compare that with Estonia, the second highest, with 95 deaths per million people.

A new initiative to tackle this was launched last week. Just steps from Glasgow’s Barrowland Ballroom is a UK-first. Formally known as the Safer Drugs Consumption Facility or The Thistle, it’s part of a harm-reduction approach to problem drug use. This week, we took a visit.

From Bingo to Barriokie: The new entertainment economy

It’s midday on a Saturday a few weeks before Christmas. Our reporter arrives at one of the best-known music venues in Leeds. It normally hosts fans of some of Britain’s biggest artists, from Primal Scream to Rag’N’Bone Man. But when the Big Issue visits, there’s a rather different crowd, full of fur coats, leopard print, cowboy hats and sequins. What brings this eclectic group here? Bingo. More specifically, Bongo’s Bingo.

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