Introduction to Community Notes
Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would be shifting its focus away from fact-checking and instead, rely on its users to verify the accuracy of content. As a result, Meta has introduced a new feature called Community Notes, which will allow users to write and rate fact checks on content across its major social platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

Rollout of Community Notes
The rollout of Community Notes will begin with a test run on March 18, focusing on note writing and ranking to iron out any issues before publication. According to Meta, over 200,000 people have signed up to contribute to Community Notes, and they will be selected randomly to participate as the feature is introduced. Initially, the feature will support six languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Portuguese.

How Community Notes Work
Meta will use an open-source algorithm, similar to the one used by X, to determine which notes will appear on the platform. The algorithm will consider the rating history of each user to ensure that notes are trustworthy. To be eligible to contribute, users must have a Meta account that is at least six months old, in good standing, and has a verified phone number with two-factor authentication enabled.

Publication of Notes
For a note to be published, it must receive approval from users with diverse viewpoints, and even if many contributors agree on a note, it will only be published if users who "normally disagree" find it helpful. All notes will be limited to 500 characters and must include a link supporting the content.

Effectiveness of Community Notes
Studies have shown that community notes can be an effective way to curb misinformation. A study by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found that users on X were more likely to retract false posts in response to notes. Another study published in PNAS Nexus found that community notes were perceived as more trustworthy than misinformation flags or notes from third-party fact-checkers.

Challenges with Community Notes
However, community notes can also be problematic, often devolving into meta-arguments, brigading, and gamification, which can prevent useful information from being published. A study by Spanish fact-checking site Maldita found that only 8.3% of proposed notes on X are actually published. This has led to an increase in disinformation and hateful content on X, despite the potential shame induced by getting Noted.

Conclusion
It remains to be seen whether Meta will be able to successfully implement community notes in a way that achieves a high level of trustworthiness while scaling to the massive amount of content on its platforms. Alternatively, it may simply be a cost-cutting measure that relies on users to do the work for free. Only time will tell if community notes will be a success or not.