Social media giant Meta has strongly suggested it will abandon its Australian fact-checking operations — such as those used to flag lies over the Bondi terror attacks — in line with its moves in Donald Trump’s America.

Forced by law to appear before the Senate inquiry into climate misinformation — after twice rejecting earlier invitations — Meta executives said the company was “reconsidering” fact-checking in Australia.

Meta currently funds Australian Associated Press, which operates AAP Fact Check, and Agence France-Presse (AFP), to undertake fact checking, whereby they flag certain articles they deem to be “false” or “altered”.

There have been question marks over those arrangements since Meta killed fact checking in the US last year, in a move praised by US President Donald Trump.

In the US it instead now operates a “community notes” system where checking posts is left to users themselves, rather than professionals, in a process experts have described as “ripe for abuse”.