Meta has announced it is ending its fact-checking program in favor of a ‘community notes’ system, similar to X’s Community Notes. The social media company (which owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp) said in a statement: “we’re replacing fact-checkers with Community Notes, simplifying our policies and focusing on reducing mistakes.”
Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video: “We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, here’s what we’re going to do. First, we’re going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the U.S.” Zuckerberg criticized “governments and legacy media” push “to censor more and more… “the recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point towards, once again, prioritizing speech. So we’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer, said in a blog post titled “More Speech and Fewer Mistakes” that the changes will lift restrictions “on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse, and will focus the company’s enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations.” In an updated news release, Meta wrote that it was able to identify posts that might be promoting misinformation based on how people were responding to certain pieces of content and how fast posts would spread. Independent fact-checkers would also work to identify posts with possible misinformation on their own, and posts that were said to include misinformation would then be shown lower in feeds as they waited for review.
Facebook will also be moving its trust and safety and content moderation team from California to Texas: “We’re also going to tune our content filters to require much higher confidence before taking down content. The reality is that this is a trade off. It means we’re going to catch less bad stuff, but we’ll also reduce the number of innocent people’s posts and accounts that we accidentally take down.”
Meta had also earlier announced the appointment of three new members to its board of directors, including Dana White, the president and CEO of Ultimate Fighting Championship (and a staunch ally of President-elect Donald Trump) as well as John Elkann and Charlie Songhurst. Zuckerberg said in a statement on Tuesday: “Dana, John, and Charlie will add a depth of expertise and perspective that will help us tackle the massive opportunities ahead with AI, wearables, and the future of human connection.” Elkann is the executive chair of auto giants Ferrari and Stellantis and CEO of the investment firm Exor, while Songhurst is a technology investor and a former executive at Microsoft.
Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post that White has built UFC “into one of the most valuable, fastest growing, and most popular sports enterprises in the world. I’ve admired him as an entrepreneur and his ability to build such a beloved brand,’ adding that Elkann has “deep experience running large global businesses and he brings an international perspective to our board.” White said in a statement that he is “a huge believer that social media and AI are the future. I am very excited to join this incredible team and to learn more about this business from the inside. There is nothing I love more than building brands, and I look forward to helping take Meta to the next level.”
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