Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company owning social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, on Thursday said that it will begin testing its crowd-sourced fact-checking programme, Community Notes, from March 18.
According to news agency AP, it will initially be based on a ratings system used by Elon Musk`s social media platform, X.
Meta ended its fact-checking programme in January. Chief Executive Officer (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 criticise his platforms. However, 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 United States (US) 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 organisations in over 60 languages to combat misinformation.
Community Notes will replace fact checks, although not immediately. According to AP, Meta said potential contributors in the US can begin signing up to take part in the programme, but the notes they write will not appear straight away.
“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, adding that it will not 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 penalised, Meta said.
Fact checks will remain in place outside of the US for now, though Meta says it eventually plans to roll out Community Notes worldwide.
(With AP inputs)
