Meta to start testing crowd-sourced fact-checking, based on X example, next week

Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms Inc. said Thursday it will begin testing its crowd-sourced fact-checking program, Community Notes, on March 18. It will initially based on a ratings system used by Elon Musk's X.

Meta ended its fact-checking program in January. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that fact-checkers had become “politically biased," using some of the language that conservatives have long used to criticize his platforms. But media experts and those who study social media were aghast at Meta’s policy shift.

The decision "not only removes a valuable resource for users, but it also provides an air of legitimacy to a popular disinformation narrative: That fact-checking is politically biased. Fact-checkers provide a valuable service by adding important context to the viral claims that mislead and misinform millions of users on Meta,” said Dan Evon, lead writer for RumorGuard, the News Literacy Project’s digital tool that curates fact checks and teaches people to spot viral misinformation.

Meta began fact checks in December 2016, after President Donald Trump was elected to his first term, in response to criticism that “fake news” was spreading on its platforms. For years, the tech giant boasted it was working with more than 100 organizations in over 60 languages to combat misinformation.

The Associated Press ended its participation in Meta’s fact-checking program more than a year ago.

Community Notes will replace fact checks, although not right away. Meta said potential contributors in the U.S. can begin to sign up to take part in the program, but the notes they write won't appear immediately.

“We will start by gradually and randomly admitting people off of the waitlist, and will take time to test the writing and rating system before any notes are published publicly,” Meta said.

Meta said it won’t decide what gets rated or written and the notes “won’t be published unless contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them.” And unlike with fact checks, where posts that were determined to be misinformation had their distribution reduced, posts with Community Notes won't be penalized, Meta said.

Fact checks will stay in place outside of the U.S. for now, though Meta says it eventually plans to roll out Community Notes worldwide.