The latest: Now, the companies are considering a fundamental shift with profound social and political implications: deciding what is true and what is false.

The big picture: The new approach, if implemented, would not affect every lie or misleading post. It would be meant only to rein in manipulated media — everything from sophisticated, AI-enabled video or audio deepfakes to super-basic video edits like a much-circulated, slowed-down clip of Nancy Pelosi that surfaced in May.

Still, it would be a significant concession to critics who say the companies have a responsibility to do much more to keep harmful false information from spreading unfiltered.

It would also be an inflection point in the companies' approach to free speech, which has thus far been that more is better and that the truth will bubble up.