The parent of Facebook, Instagram and Threads says it will launch its crowd-sourced fact-checking program, called Community Notes, on Tuesday.
Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook , Instagram and Threads , will start testing its new Community Notes fact-checking tool next week, part of a shift toward having users police content on its social media platforms themselves.
Announcing the plan in January, CEO Mark Zuckerberg also said the company was moving its trust, safety and moderation teams from California to Texas, where “there is less concern about bias of our teams.” He didn’t say where the unit would be located, but the company has office space in downtown Austin and data centers in Fort Worth and Temple. Meta already has ended its years-old fact-checking program, with Zuckerberg saying that fact-checkers had become “politically biased,” using some of the language conservatives have long used to criticize his platforms. He directly aligned the moves with the election of Donald Trump, an event he called “a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.” RELATED: Meta considers reincorporating in Texas. It would be following Tesla and SpaceX in leaving Delaware. Media experts and those who study social media were aghast. The decision “not only removes a valuable resource for users, but it also provides an air of legitimacy to a popular disinformation narrative: That fact-checking is politically biased. Fact-checkers provide a valuable service by adding important context to the viral claims that mislead and misinform millions of users on Meta,” said Dan Evon, lead writer for RumorGuard, the News Literacy Project’s digital tool that curates fact checks and teaches people to spot viral misinformation. Meta began fact checks in December 2016, after President Trump was elected to his first term, in response to criticism that “fake news” was spreading on its platforms. For years, the tech giant boasted it was working with more than 100 organizations in over 60 languages to combat misinformation. Community Notes, which initially will be based on a ratings system used by Elon Musk’s X, will replace fact checks. Meta said about 200,000 potential contributors in the U.S. have signed up so far, but the notes they write won’t appear immediately when the test begins Tuesday. “We will start by gradually and randomly admitting people off of the waitlist, and will take time to test the writing and rating system before any notes are published publicly,” Meta said. Contributors can’t submit Community Notes on advertisements but can on posts by Meta, the company’s executives, politicians and other public figures. Meta said it won’t decide what gets rated or written, and the notes “won’t be published unless contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them.” Notes that are appended to posts will not impact who can see the post or how widely it can be shared, according to the company. That’s a change from previous Meta-run fact-checking efforts that did result in certain posts being demoted or their reach getting restricted. Fact checks will stay in place outside of the U.S. for now, though Meta says it eventually plans to roll out Community Notes worldwide.
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