Meta to ends fact-checking programme, to start with Community Notes; details here

Meta is set to conclude its US fact-checking programme on Monday, as announced by Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer. Kaplan stated, “By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over. That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers.” This marks a significant shift in Meta’s content moderation strategy, transitioning away from dedicated fact-checkers towards a more community-driven approach across its platforms, including Facebook, Threads, and Instagram.

In place of the fact-checking programme, Meta will introduce Community Notes, a feature allowing users to provide context to posts that might be misleading. Kaplan explained that Community Notes will gradually appear without penalties attached. 

Kaplan took to X to announce the latest update, a subject that has sparked widespread discussion in recent months. In his post, he revealed that Meta will no longer be hiring new fact-checkers and will be ending its partnerships with existing fact-checkers in the US.

He noted the inspiration drawn from the success of a similar feature on Elon Musk-owned platform X, where users contribute to deciding when posts require more context. He mentioned, “We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context. People across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see.”

The decision to end the programme was articulated in January, prior to the inauguration of US President Donald Trump. At that time, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, expressed concerns over “too many mistakes and too much censorship” under the existing system. He emphasised a return to Meta’s foundational principles of free expression, stating, “It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression.” 

Meta’s fact-checking initiative began in 2016, following criticism for Facebook’s role in disseminating false information during the US presidential election that year. However, the programme faced scrutiny over implementation errors and accusations of excessive moderation. 
What is Community Notes

Meta, like X (formerly known as Twitter before being acquired by billionaire Elon Musk for $44 billion in 2022), will now be introducing a Community Notes model for content moderation instead of using fact-checkers.

The Community Notes feature, previously known as BirdWatch, was launched as a pilot in 2021 and gained significant popularity in 2023. This tool is designed to spot and highlight potentially misleading information on the platform.

Community Notes will be displayed as boxes labeled ‘Readers added context’ below posts on X that have been flagged as potentially misleading or inaccurate. These notes typically offer a correction or clarification, often including a link to a trustworthy online source supporting the correction.

These annotations are generated by eligible users who have opted to participate in the program.

Kaplan highlighted, “We’re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate. It’s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms.” 

To qualify for participation, users must have no violations on their account since January 2023, possess a verified phone number from a legitimate mobile carrier, and maintain an account that has been active for at least six months.

Upon being approved as contributors, participants have the ability to rate other Community Notes as either ‘Helpful’ or ‘Not Helpful’. Contributors are assigned a Rating Impact score, which indicates the frequency with which their ratings influence notes that are deemed ‘Helpful’ or ‘Not Helpful’. A Rating Impact score of 5 allows contributors to progress to the next level, granting them the ability to create Contributor Notes for X posts and rate them accordingly.

Community Notes that receive five or more ratings are subjected to algorithmic evaluation. The algorithm categorizes each note as either ‘Helpful’, ‘Not Helpful’, or ‘Needs more ratings’. During this phase, the notes are exclusively viewable to contributors and not visible to X users.

Only notes that receive a final ‘Helpful’ designation from the algorithm are showcased to all X users below the relevant post.