Summary
- Meta is replacing its third-party fact-checking program with a crowdsourced Community Notes system, similar to X (Twitter), starting with testing in the US on March 18. This aims to provide a broader range of user perspectives and reduce bias.
- The Community Notes system will rely on user contributors who must meet specific criteria, allowing them to add context to posts and rate notes. Notes will only be published if they achieve broad consensus among users with diverse viewpoints, ensuring agreement across differing perspectives.
- Meta will use X’s open-source algorithm as the foundation for its rating system and will gradually roll out the feature after testing, with plans for future global expansion. The focus is on providing helpful context without impacting content distribution, and emphasizing that the system will prioritize agreement between those who usually disagree.
Meta’s social media services, primarily Facebook and Instagram, have long relied on its third-party fact-checking program to distinguish between accurate information and false claims, essentially deciding what thrives on the platform and what doesn’t. In January, however, Meta decided to abruptly end the program in favor of an X (Twitter)-like crowdsourced Community Notes approach, citing a wide and diverse range of user perspectives to be more balanced and less biased.
Back then, Meta simply stated that it would begin experimenting with Community Notes soon. As part of a subsequent update, we now know that Meta will begin testing the new approach starting Tuesday, March 18.
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In a new announcement made today, Meta announced that Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users in the US that are 18+, have 2FA, and are in good standing with an account older than six months can sign up to be a Community Notes contributor. Roughly 200,000 potential contributors have already signed up across the apps, with waitlists still open for you to join.
These contributors will be the backbone of the Community Notes tool, which will take over the role of third-party fact-checkers, essentially mirroring X’s approach. These contributors will be able to add context to user posts and rate existing notes, with no interference from Meta’s end. Additionally, “to safeguard against bias, notes won’t be published unless contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them,” wrote the tech giant.
Meta also added that participants won’t be able to mass-bully their way through to having what they agree with show up under posts. “This isn’t majority rules,” said Meta, indicating that notes won’t be published until people who normally disagree on specific viewpoints decide that a note provides helpful context for regular users, essentially prioritizing agreement across differing perspectives instead of a simple majority.
Third-party fact-checking to stay in place in other countries, at least for now
Participants who wish to pitch a Community Note will have a limit of 500 words where they should provide background information for context, use neutral language that is unbiased and easy for users to understand, and attach a link from a reliable source to support their note. At the user’s end, posts with a Community Note will carry a “People added a community note” tag that is expandable, revealing the full note and the attached link for reference.
Additionally, Community Notes won’t have author names attached to them. “We want notes to be rated based on whether the context they add is helpful, not on who wrote them,” says Meta.
For what it’s worth, Meta isn’t just mirroring X’s approach with Community Notes, it is outright adopting it. Meta’s Community Notes system will use X’s open-source algorithm as its rating system’s foundation, with iterative upgrades and improvements to come subsequently.
As X’s algorithm and program information is open source – meaning free and available for anyone to use – we can build on what X has done, learn from the researchers who have studied it, and improve the system for our own platforms. As our own version develops, we may explore different or adjusted algorithms to support how Community Notes are ranked and rated.
It’s also worth noting that Community Notes won’t start appearing on posts starting March 18 — that’s just when Meta will start testing out the new tool with participants. The tech giant said that it will take time to test the note-writing and rating system before it begins publishing notes publicly. Additionally, Meta’s third-party fact-checking program will stay in place in other countries until Community Notes’ wider rollout.
To start, Community Notes in the US will be available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Portuguese, with the intention of expanding to more languages over time.
