Image showing misinformation. Source: South China Morning Post
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Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has announced plans to terminate its third-party fact-checking programme. This is a radical departure from the traditional content moderation strategy that began in 2016.
The announcement, made by Mark Zuckerberg, the company’s chief executive officer, via his verified Facebook page on Jan. 7, 2025, was among other policies to be implemented amidst what Meta termed as efforts to restore free expression and minimise errors within the platform’s content policies.
Zuckerberg in a video said Meta would incrementally phase out the third-party fact-checking programme.
He said, “We’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X (formerly Twitter), starting in the US. After Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote non-stop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy. We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth.”
Since 2016, Meta’s fact-checking programme has collaborated with around 80 organisations globally to verify claims across its platforms, combatting the spread of misinformation, particularly during critical events such as elections and public health crises.
Zuckerberg’s announcement came amid growing criticism of Meta’s political bias in its fact-checking processes. He said that third-party fact-checkers have destroyed more trust than they’ve created, particularly in the United States, and that the company is moving towards a model that emphasises user-generated content moderation.
Community Notes: A New Approach
The transition to Community Notes means users will be empowered to provide context and insights on posts that may contain misleading information to boost community involvement in content moderation rather than relying solely on external fact-checkers.
Zuckerberg noted that this change indicates a broader cultural shift towards prioritising free speech over stringent content controls.
He said, “[The 2024 United States presidential election] feels like a cultural tipping point towards once again prioritising speech. So we’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Community Notes on X (formerly Twitter) began as a pilot programme on Jan. 28, 2021, but expanded to all users in the United States in October 2022 and globally two months later. Other platforms deploying user-generated content moderation strategies include Reddit and Wikipedia.
