Meta Platforms has issued an update to its controversial replacement of fact-checkers with Community Notes – a scheme pioneered at Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).
Indeed, in a blog post about the matter, Meta confirmed that it will begin testing its new Community Notes content moderation tool across Facebook, Instagram and Threads from Tuesday 18 March.
In addition, Meta confirmed it is initially using “X’s open source algorithm as the basis of our rating system,” in a move that will no little to limit the concerns of staff, campaigners and members of its Oversight Board over the axing of third-party fact-checking.
Image credit Meta Platforms
Community Notes
In January 2025 Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had announced in a video “it is time to get back to our roots around free expression. We’re replacing fact checkers with Community Notes…”
Zuckerberg confirmed that it was ending third party fact-checking program in the US that it had begun back in 2016, and is moving to a Community Notes model.
Meta had alleged censorship problems with fact-checking due to the biases and perspectives of the fact-checkers themselves (allegations the fact-checking organisations have strongly denied).
But the decision triggered strong criticism, with some Meta staff taking to their internal forum to criticise the move.
The move was also criticised by fact checkers, human rights groups, online hate campaigners, and by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, co-chair of Meta’s Oversight Board, the independent body that reviews Facebook and Instagram content.
In February Neil Johnson, a George Washington University physics professor and expert in how misinformation and hate speech spread online, told CNBC that a Community Notes program can help provide context for online content, but is not a substitute for “formal fact-checking.”
Johnson reportedly characterised a Community Notes model as an “imperfect system” that can potentially be exploited by large groups or organisations with their own agendas.
And the lead up to the change at Meta has not gone as smoothly as Zuckerberg would have liked.
Last month the Instagram Reels feed around the world for a time showed inappropriate content, that included people being beaten or even killed.
Testing, testing
Now Meta in its blog post wrote that “on March 18th, we will begin testing this new approach by allowing contributors from our community to write and rate notes on content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads.”
Meta said that so far 200,000 potential contributors in the US have signed up across all three apps, and it will work in the same way as Elon Musk’s X Community Notes system, where users add context to posts.
“Meta won’t decide what gets rated or written – contributors from our community will. And to safeguard against bias, notes won’t be published unless contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them,” it wrote.
“This isn’t majority rules. 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 wrote.
Image credit Meta Platforms
Community Notes will have a limit of 500 characters and will need to include a link to support the note.
Contributors have to be 18 years old and will not be able to submit notes on advertisements. They can, however, write and submit notes on almost any other forms of content, including posts by Meta, our executives, politicians and other public figures.
Musk’s algorithm
And Meta confirmed that it will be using Elon Musk’s X algorithm.
“We won’t be reinventing the wheel,” it said. “Initially we will use X’s open source algorithm as the basis of our rating system. This will allow us to build on what X has created and improve it for our own platforms over time.”
“We expect Community Notes to be less biased than the third party fact checking program it replaces, and to operate at a greater scale when it is fully up and running,” Meta wrote.
“Community Notes allow more people with more perspectives to add context to more types of content, and because publishing a note requires agreement between different people, we believe it will be less prone to bias,” Meta stated.
“Our intention is ultimately to roll out this new approach to our users all over the world, but we won’t be doing that immediately,” it stated. “Until Community Notes are launched in other countries, the third party fact checking program will remain in place for them.”
Currying favour
There has been a remarkable change to Mark Zuckerberg’s and Meta’s dealings with Donald Trump over the past four months.
Indeed, Mark Zuckerberg has carried out a number of changes to his business empire following Trump’s election victory last November.
This includes donating $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, and Zuckerberg having dinner at Mar-a-Lago with Trump.
Meta’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg (former a UK deputy prime minister), also left the company and was replaced by Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican, in a move seen as a changing of the guard.
Meta Platforms also elected a close friend of Donald Trump to its board of directors, along with two others.
Dana White, chief executive of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has a long relationship with Trump and spoke in support of Trump’s election campaign in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
