Meta officially ending 'fact-checking'

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, announced on Friday that it is officially ending its "fact-checking" program in the United States.

Joel Kaplan, the company's chief global affairs officer, stated that starting Monday, it will terminate the program for good and switch to a community notes system, similar to Elon Musk's X.

'We don't expect this process to be perfect, and we'll continue to improve as we learn.'

Kaplan declared, "By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over."

"That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers," he continued. "We announced in January we'd be winding down the program & removing penalties. In place of fact checks, the first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached."

A Meta spokesperson told Fox Business that community notes are "a better approach that will be less biased and more scalable."

The representative noted that the company expects "more people with more perspectives adding context to more types of content."

"The community decides what notes get written and rated — not Meta," the spokesperson continued. "That said, this is a brand-new product that we're still testing and building. We don't expect this process to be perfect, and we'll continue to improve as we learn."

Meta explained that as part of the change, no social media users should have strikes against their account by Monday. Since January, anyone who has been so-called "fact-checked" will reportedly not face any account penalties or demotions.

The company's website explains that the changes will be rolled out to the U.S., improved over the year, and then implemented in other countries.

Meta began testing its new community notes feature in mid-March, allowing some social media users to write and rate notes across its platforms.

"Around 200,000 potential contributors in the U.S. have signed up so far across all three apps, and the wait list remains open for those who wish to take part in the program. But notes won't initially appear on content. We will start by gradually and randomly admitting people off of the wait list and will take time to test the writing and rating system before any notes are published publicly," the company stated.

The rating system for determining whether a community note is added to a post "isn't majority rules," Meta added.

"No matter how many contributors agree on a note, it won't be published unless people who normally disagree decide that it provides helpful context," it said.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the forthcoming changes in January when he released a video stating that the company was returning to its "roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms."

"More specifically, here's what we're going to do. First, we're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.," he said, citing the 2024 presidential election as a contributing influence in the decision.

"The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech," Zuckerberg added.

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