Meta is ending its U.S. fact-checking program and replacing it with a system just like Elon Musk’s “Community Notes” on X, Facebook’s owner announced Tuesday.
The latest model will allow users of the social media sites Meta, Facebook, Instagram and Threads to flag posts which may be misleading and require more context, somewhat than placing responsibility on independent organizations and fact-checking experts.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to CBC News that the changes will not apply to Canada or anywhere else outside the U.S. for now.
“We are starting by sharing the notes with the community in [U.S.]and we will continue to improve it over the course of the year before expanding to other countries,” the spokesperson said.
Meta’s Director of Global Affairs, Joel Kaplan, wrote a blog post explaining this modification.
“Experts, like everyone else, have their biases and points of view. This was reflected in the choices some made about what and how to fact-check,” Kaplan wrote. “A program intended to inform has too often become a tool of censorship.”
Kaplan added that its efforts over the years to administer content on its platforms have expanded “to the point where we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often impeding the free expression we wanted to enable.”
The changes were partly influenced by Trump’s victory
CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the changes are partly because of political events, including Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.
“The recent election also feels like a cultural turning point toward re-prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said in an internet video.
The company said it will begin rolling out Community Notes in the United States in the next few months and will refine the model over the course of the yr.
“We’ve seen this approach work with X — where it allows the community to decide when posts may be misleading and require more context,” Kaplan said in a blog post.
Meta will also stop degrading verified content and use a label to tell users that there may be additional information related to a post, somewhat than the company’s current approach to displaying full-screen warnings that users must click before they will even view the post.
