Meta to abandon fact-checking and replace it with X-style ‘Community Notes’

The parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Meta, has announced the end of its third-party fact-checking program, presumably in an effort to curry favor with the incoming Trump administration. As part of this change, “community notes,” a user-driven system for identifying and contextualizing potentially false information, will be introduced. This strategy is similar to that used by Elon Musk’s social media platform, X.

According to a statement issued on Tuesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg ascribed this policy change to a “cultural tipping point” that highlights a renewed emphasis on giving free speech priority.

For years, Meta has argued that too much content is reviewed and that professional fact-checkers are biased. The business now supports a crowdsourced strategy that gives users the ability to spot and explain posts that might be misleading.

According to a blog post by Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer at Meta, this approach has worked well on X, where the community is vital in assessing the context and authenticity of user-generated content. Over the upcoming months, a phased implementation of this new system is anticipated.

This choice follows a string of moves by Meta that seem to be intended to gain favor with the incoming Trump administration. Both Amazon and Meta gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund in December, and Zuckerberg had a private dinner with the former president at his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate. The former president, who had previously been barred from the social media site, and the founder of Facebook made progress toward reconciliation with this meeting.

In addition, Meta recently added Dana White, a well-known member of Trump’s inner circle and the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship, to its board of directors. The announcement of Kaplan, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, as the head of Meta’s global affairs on January 2nd was followed by this appointment.

In response to widespread criticism about the spread of “fake news” on its platforms, Meta launched its fact-checking program in December 2016, after Trump was elected. For a number of years, the tech giant highlighted how it works with more than 100 organizations in 60 languages to fight misinformation.

Meta hopes to improve “free speech” under the new system by easing restrictions on conversations about commonplace issues like gender and immigration. Addressing unlawful activity and “high-severity violations,” such as terrorism, child sex exploitation, and drug-related offenses, will become the main priority.

Meta admits that its prior strategy, which involved developing intricate systems to oversee content moderation, was overly stringent and led to the unjustified censorship of a sizable amount of content.

“Meta is repositioning the company for the incoming Trump administration. The move will elate conservatives, who’ve often criticized Meta for censoring speech, but it will spook many liberals and advertisers, showing just how far Zuckerberg is willing to go to win Trump’s approval,” Emarketer analyst Jasmine Enberg noted.

Enberg added that, in a shift motivated in large by Elon Musk, fact-checking by third parties “has gone out of fashion among social executives. Social platforms have become more political and polarized, as misinformation has become a buzzword that encompasses everything from outright lies to viewpoints people disagree with.”

Although Meta’s easing of content moderation guidelines has drawn some users and possibly advertisers who support the change, it has also raised questions.

Some advertisers have left X as a result of its more relaxed content policies. Nonetheless, Laura Enberg, an industry analyst, thinks Meta has some resilience against a mass exodus of users and advertisers like X because of its sizable market share and strong advertising platform. However, she issued a warning that Meta’s advertising revenue could suffer from any notable drop in user engagement.

The independent Oversight Board of Meta, which is in charge of examining contentious decisions, endorsed the company’s updated strategy. The Board underlined that it is prepared to work with Meta to carefully evaluate the modifications and make sure the new framework maintains its efficacy while respecting free speech rights.

Political differences were the main source of disagreement over Meta’s policy change.

Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, a strong advocate for laxer content control, praised the action as a “significant step forward” on X.

On the other hand, some people were skeptical and worried that the adjustments weren’t enough to rebuild confidence in Mark Zuckerberg and the company’s management.

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Can any of us assume Zuckerberg won’t return to his old tricks?” Rep. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted to X.

The Meta CEO was publicly criticized on Trump’s Truth Social platform, where users called him “the enemy” and a “snake.”

The change is “by no means perfect, and fact-checkers have no doubt erred in some percentage of their labels,” according to Alexios Mantzarlis, former director of the International Fact-Checking Network and director of Cornell Tech’s Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative.

“Depending on how this is applied, the consequences of this decision will be an increase in harassment, hate speech, and other harmful behavior across billion-user platforms,” he said, referring to the Meta change as “a choice of politics, not policy.”