In a move that follows through on the company’s previous commitment announced in January, Meta is set to officially end its third-party fact-checking on its U.S. platforms on Monday, April 7.
The parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Threads will turn off fact-checkers’ ability to rate new content, meaning no new fact-checks will appear on content in America. Instead, “Community Notes” will reportedly replace the fact-checking system.
“We believe this is a better approach that will be less biased and more scalable, and ultimately we expect to have more people with more perspectives adding context to more types of content,” a Meta spokesperson said in an email statement.
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“The community decides what notes get written and rated – not Meta,” the statement continued. “That said, this is a brand new product that we’re still testing and building. We don’t expect this process to be perfect and we’ll continue to improve as we learn.”
Meta also said old fact-checks from previous ratings won’t be matched to new content in the U.S., and any posts that have received a fact-check since January will not face penalties or demotions. By Monday, no Meta users should have strikes on their accounts.
Community Notes provides “a new way” for users to decide when to add more context to posts that are potentially misleading or confusing, the company said, while acknowledging the algorithm will “take time” to improve.
In January, Meta announced it would be eliminating its fact-checking program as part of an effort to restore free expression on Facebook and Instagram. Prominent politicians – including President Donald Trump, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) – applauded Meta for taking this step.
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Fox News’ Nikolas Lanum contributed to this report.
