A Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has announced a significant change in its strategy to combat disinformation. From now on, the fact-checking program carried out by third-party organizations will be discontinued. It will be replaced by a “Community Ratings” system, similar to the model implemented in X.
The decision, which is beginning to be implemented in the US, comes after Meta acknowledged that the current system, based on independent fact-checkers, was “biased” and resulted in excessive verification of content. The company believes that the new model, which relies on input from users themselves to identify and contextualize potentially false information, will be more effective.
The “Community Notes” system allows users to add notes to posts they consider misleading or need additional context. Meta says this model, already used successfully in X, allows the community to decide which posts need to be flagged. This promotes greater transparency and user participation in the fight against misinformation.
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With this change, Meta also intends to “allow more speech” on its platforms, easing restrictions on topics such as immigration and gender. It wants to focus on “high-severity and illegal violations” such as terrorism, child exploitation and drug trafficking. The company acknowledges that its content moderation systems “went too far” and made “many mistakes” by over-censoring legitimate content.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, acknowledged that the change is partly driven by recent political events and a cultural shift toward prioritizing free speech. Meta’s Oversight Board, the independent body that oversees the company’s content decisions, welcomed the changes and said it intends to work with Meta on implementing the new system.
The transition to the “Community Notes” model will be gradual, and Meta expects to refine the system over the course of the year. The company will also replace overlay notices on posts with labels. It hopes this will simplify the user experience.
It remains to be seen how this new model will impact the fight against misinformation on Meta platforms. It is also necessary to know whether it will be effective in identifying and combating fake news. The experience with X has not been peaceful and many understand that Elon Musk's social network has become a place where false information is now a focus and commonplace.
