Meta to replace fact-checking with 'Community Notes' system
Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta's fact-checking program will soon be replaced with a system similar to the Community Notes feature used in X, the platform owned by his rival Elon Musk.
In a video statement on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg explained that the feature will affect Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
"We're gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms," he said. "We're going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US."
The Meta CEO stated that when incoming US president Donald Trump was first elected in 2016, traditional media outlets frequently reported on the dangers of misinformation on democracy.
He noted that the company has "tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth" however, the fact-checkers "have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created, especially in the US."
In addition, there were complaints that Meta censored "harmless content" and was slow to respond to accounts being restricted.
"The problem with complex systems is they make mistakes, even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that's millions of people, and we've reached a point where it's just too many mistakes and too much censorship," Zuckerberg said.
Apart from adopting the Community Notes system, Meta will also simplify its content policies and get rid of restrictions on topics like immigration and gender that are just "out of touch with mainstream discourse."
"What started as a movement to be more inclusive has increasingly been used to shut down opinions and shut out people with different ideas, and it's gone too far. So I want to make sure that people can share their beliefs and experiences on our platforms," Zuckerberg explained.
They will also focus their filters for any policy violation on tackling illegal and high-severity violations. For lower severity violations, Meta will rely on users reporting an issue before they take action.
"The problem is that the filters make mistakes and they take down a lot of content that they shouldn't. So by dialing them back, we're going to dramatically reduce the amount of censorship on our platforms," the businessman said.
"The reality is that this is a trade-off. It means we're going to catch less bad stuff, but we'll also reduce the number of innocent people's posts and accounts that we accidentally take down," he continued.
According to Zuckerberg, Meta will be returning political content into users' feeds “while working to keep the communities friendly and positive.”
"It feels like we are in a new era now and we're getting feedback that people want to see this content again," he said.
Zuckerberg also said that Meta is partnering with Trump to push back on government efforts worldwide that target American companies and promote censorship. He expressed excitement about the opportunity to "restore free expression."
While he acknowledged that "it'll take time to get this right," he stressed that "the bottom line is that after years of having our content moderation work focus primarily on removing content, it is time to focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our systems and getting back to our roots about giving people a voice."
According to X, Community Notes is a "collaborative way to add helpful context to posts and keep people better informed." It is formed by Contributors who sign up to write and rate notes.
