Meta is replacing third-party fact-checking with a crowdsourced Community Notes feature, aimed at tackling misinformation across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
The feature, launching by March 2025, will allow approved contributors to add additional context to posts flagged as misleading.
However, its reliance on contributors with opposing political views has already sparked concerns. Studies of similar systems, like X's, show that contentious political claims often fail to reach consensus, leaving a significant amount of misinformation unflagged.
While Community Notes has been successful in some areas, reducing retweets by half and increasing content removal, it faces scalability challenges with Meta’s 3 billion strong user base.
Some accounts highlight that building an effective network of contributors will take time, and there are questions about how swiftly and accurately it can handle viral misinformation.
With fact-checking now eliminated, Community Notes represents a bold but uncertain step for Meta in tackling misinformation.