Hajra Naz
Meta Platforms Incorporated, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, says that it will start testing a new crowd-sourced fact-checking feature, Community Notes, on March 18. The program was inspired by the rating system on Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter). It aims to replace traditional third-party fact-checking organizations with fact-checking done by users.
A Shift Away from Traditional Fact-Checking
In January, Meta officially ended its internal fact-checking program, claiming that it was abused by “politically-biased” fact-checkers, according to Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg. This decision has been met with backlash from media professionals and misinformation scholars who believe that the willingly unfiltered spread of disinformation needs to be fact-checked.
Dan Evon, a lead writer for RumorGuard at the News Literacy Project, warned that Meta’s decision exacerbates the already prevalent narrative that politically-motivated fact-checking exists. He said,
“Meta’s platforms are used by hundreds of millions of users who are misled due to viral claims while context is traditional layered on these claims, thus fact-checkers serve an important purpose.”
Meta’s first policies to curb misinformation were launched in December 2016 due to the unforeseen propagation of “fake news” during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. At one point, the company had over 100 partners, including over 100 fact-checking organizations across 60 different languages. Nonetheless, some major partners like the Associated Press had pulled out before the program was discontinued.
Read More: No Fact-Checks, No Limits: Meta’s New Internet Philosophy
How Community Notes Will Work
Community Notes will gradually replace fact-checking but won’t take full effect immediately. U.S. users can begin signing up to participate, but their contributions will not be visible right away.
Meta stated.
“We will start by randomly admitting users from the waitlist and testing the writing and rating system before publishing any notes publicly,”
Unlike the previous fact-checking system, where posts flagged as misinformation had reduced visibility, Community Notes will not penalize posts, even if they are flagged for misinformation.
Meta also clarified that it will not control what is rated or written. A note will only be published if contributors with diverse viewpoints agree on its accuracy.
Future Expansion
For now, the U.S. will not have access to Meta’s Community Notes, but its expansion is planned for the future. This greatly signals a change in how the company approaches misinformation by eliminating the more traditional form of fact-checking and instituting a community-based system.
It is still undetermined how effective the new system will be, but it signals a new outlook for Meta’s content moderation policies.
