- Facebook and Instagram will switch from independent fact-checkers to community notes, similar to X.
- The decision is related to alleged bias among fact-checkers, particularly in the US, according to Mark Zuckerberg.
- Meta will focus on high-severity illegal violations and rely on user reports for other violations, to preserve free speech.
Social media platforms like Facebook have always faced issues with the spread of misinformation, and false narratives, which can sometimes cause unrest among the general populace or shift the tide of political campaigns. To curb this issue, the Meta-owned service came up with its independent fact-checking program in 2016. But that didn’t bear the fruitful results Zuckerburg was hoping for. Which is why Meta announced that Facebook and Instagram will switch to community notes similar to X.
On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerburg shared a video along with a blog post discussing why Facebook and Instagram will be transitioning away from independent fact-checkers over to community notes. The reason for this, as Mark shares, is that the “fact checkers too had political bias, especially in the US”. He added “get back to our roots around free expression” as mentioned in the blog post.
By the end of the video, the Meta CEO mentioned that they will be working closely with President-elect Donald Trump to push back on countries trying to censor content on the apps. However, many outlets and people are reading it as a way to cozy up to the new administration and curry a favor out of the President.
But Zuckerburg was already upset with Meta’s content moderation. The Facebook founder posted a picture of himself after surgery, which was slowed down by the algorithm. This prompted him to do a full-scale review of the company’s algorithms.
Mark Zuckerberg was personally upset by Meta's content moderation system after he posted a photo of himself post-surgery in 2023.
The post was slowed by Meta's algorithm & led to a full-scale review of algorithmic demotions.
Anecdote in day 2 story w/@AlexaCorse @JeffHorwitz pic.twitter.com/M2EGEbdgc0— Meghan Bobrowsky (@MeghanBobrowsky) January 8, 2025
He also announced that the platform will be dialing down on several content moderation policies, and lower censorship. Moving forward, Meta will also focus its filters towards high-severity illegal violations, while relying on people to report other violations. Facebook is also going to move its trust and safety and content moderation team out of California to Texas. That is because there will be less concern for the bias of their teams.
Both Donald Trump and the X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk praised Meta’s latest move. Of course, this has upset many people, including independent fact-checkers. But this is the course that the company will be moving to going forward. It will be interesting to see how Meta implements community notes on the Facebook and Instagram. And how they help preserve free speech while calling out fake information.
