Fact-checkers are being phased out at Meta.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will end the current third-party fact-checking program in the United States and instead begin moving to a Community Notes program,\u201d announced Joel Kaplan, Meta\u2019s Chief Global Affairs Officer, in a company blog post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Kaplan added that Meta would address the \u201cmission creep\u201d that has resulted in overly restrictive and over-enforced platform rules. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting rid of a number of restrictions on topics like immigration, gender identity and gender that are the subject of frequent political discourse and debate,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s not right that things can be said on TV or the floor of Congress, but not on our platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meta will also modify its automated systems for detecting policy violations. \u201c[T]his has resulted in too many mistakes and too much content being censored that shouldn\u2019t have been,\u201d Kaplan wrote.<\/p>\n
These systems will prioritize illegal and severe violations, such as terrorism, child exploitation, drugs, fraud, and scams. Less severe violations will require user reporting before action is taken.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Meta is raising the bar for content removal, requiring multiple reviewers for a takedown decision and increasing visibility of civic content (elections, politics, social issues) for interested users.<\/p>\n
Censorship Tool<\/p>\n
Kaplan explained that the 2016 launch of the independent fact-checking program aimed to avoid Meta becoming the arbiter of truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intention of the program was to have these independent experts give people more information about the things they see online, particularly viral hoaxes, so they were able to judge for themselves what they saw and read,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the way things played out, especially in the United States,\u201d he continued. \u201cExperts, like everyone else, have their own biases and perspectives. This showed up in the choices some made about what to fact check and how.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOver time, we ended up with too much content being fact-checked that people would understand to be legitimate political speech and debate,\u201d he noted. \u201cOur system then attached real consequences in the form of intrusive labels and reduced distribution. A program intended to inform too often became a tool to censor.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
David Inserra, a fellow at the Cato Institute, who previously served on a Facebook content policy team, criticized the fact-checkers’ selection bias. \u201cThe only people who joined to be fact-checkers wanted to moderate content,\u201d he told TechNewsWorld. \u201cPeople who wanted users to make their own decisions about content didn\u2019t become fact-checkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy experience with the effectiveness of Facebook\u2019s fact-checking was pretty mixed overall,\u201d added Darian Shimy, CEO of FutureFund.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt added a layer of accountability, but\u2026 I found it was too slow and inconsistent to keep up with\u2026viral misinformation,\u201d he told TechNewsWorld. \u201cMost people felt that relying on third-party fact-checkers created a perception of bias.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Not a Victory for Free Speech\u2019<\/p>\n
Irina Raicu, director for internet ethics at Santa Clara University, noted that disinformation persisted on Facebook despite fact-checking.<\/p>\n
\u201cPart of the problem was the automation of content moderation,\u201d she told TechNewsWorld. \u201cThe algorithmic tools\u2026missed the nuances\u2026 And the problem was even more widespread in posts in languages other than English.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWith billions of pieces of content posted daily, it was\u2026impossible for human fact-checkers to keep up,\u201d added Paul Benigeri, co-founder and CEO of Archive.<\/p>\n
\u201cFact-checking felt more like a PR move,\u201d he told TechNewsWorld. \u201cSometimes it worked, but it never\u2026caught the full volume of misleading posts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, founder of CyberWell, questioned Meta’s decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the previous fact-checking system\u2026[was] ineffective\u2026the answer cannot be less accountability\u2026from the platforms,\u201d she told TechNewsWorld.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a victory for free speech,\u201d she declared. \u201cIt\u2019s an exchange of human bias\u2026for human bias at scale through Community Notes\u2026[We need] legal requirements\u2026that enforce social media reform and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flawed Community Solution<\/p>\n
Cody Buntain, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, commented on the Community Notes replacement. \u201cThe community-based approach\u2026deals partially with the scale issue\u2026. It allows many more people to engage\u2026and add context.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem is that community notes\u2026is generally not fast enough and gets\u2026overwhelmed with new major events,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw this\u2026after the attacks in Israel\u2026in October of 2023,\u201d he continued. \u201c\u2026Twitter\u2026got swamped\u2026with misinformation\u2026.Community notes aren\u2019t\u2026set up to deal with those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been a fan of community notes,\u201d added Karen Kovacs North, a clinical professor at the Annenberg School.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe type of people\u2026willing to put notes on something are usually polarized\u2026,\u201d she told TechNewsWorld. \u201cThe middle-of-the-roaders don\u2019t\u2026put their comments\u2026on a story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currying Trump\u2019s Favor<\/p>\n
Vincent Raynauld, an assistant professor at Emerson College, noted that community moderation, though appealing, has flaws. \u201cEven though the content might be flagged\u2026it is still available\u2026,\u201d he told TechNewsWorld.<\/p>\n
Along with Kaplan’s announcement, Meta released a video of CEO Mark Zuckerberg praising the changes. \u201cWe\u2019re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cZuckerberg\u2019s announcement has nothing to do with\u2026better platforms and everything to do with currying favor with Donald Trump,\u201d asserted Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a time when Zuckerberg cared about\u2026dangerous misinformation\u2026,\u201d he told TechNewsWorld. \u201cNow Trump is returning to office\u2026so Zuckerberg is just getting with the program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musk as Trend Setter<\/p>\n
Damian Rollison, director of marketing for SOCi, highlighted an irony in Meta’s move. \u201cNo one predicted Elon Musk\u2019s chaotic takeover of Twitter would become a trend\u2026,\u201d he told TechNewsWorld.<\/p>\n
\u201cMusk established a standard\u2026for the loosening of online content moderation, one that Meta has now embraced in advance of the incoming Trump administration,\u201d he said. This may lead to increased political speech and controversial posts on Facebook and Instagram. “This change may make the platform less attractive to advertisers,\u201d he added. Meta to Eliminate Third-Party Fact-Checking Fact-checkers are being phased out at Meta. \u201cWe will end the current third-party fact-checking program in the United States and instead begin moving to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/01\/meta-sign.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusionmindlabs.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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