Meta is ending its third-party fact-checking programme and moving to a Community Notes model, wherein users add facts and context below a post. While India is out of the ambit for now, Jatin Grover points out it is not against the law but the final test is whether quality vetting of facts will happen
How is Meta changing its fact-checking norms?
In 2016, Meta , then Facebook, launched its independent fact-checking programme to curb misinformation on its platforms — Facebook and Instagram — by users. The company works with fact checkers certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) who review and rate the accuracy of posts on Meta platforms through original reporting. These independent experts give people more information about the things they see online, particularly viral hoaxes, so they are able to judge for themselves the authenticity of what they saw and read.
Now, the company is changing to Community Notes, which is a crowdsourced fact-checking model. Through this, users will be able to add facts and context below a specific post.
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“We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see,” said Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer at Meta.
Why Meta is switching to Community Notes?
METeta said the independent fact-check programme didn’t meet the expectations. Experts, like everyone else, have their own biases and perspectives. This showed up in the choices some made about what to fact check and how, it said, adding that it has been over-enforcing rules, limiting legitimate political debate and censoring too much trivial content. Through Community Notes, Meta wants to allow more speech by lifting restrictions on some topics that are part of mainstream discourse and focusing its enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations. “We will take a more personalised approach to political content, so that people who want to see more of it in their feeds can,” Kaplan said. Once Community Notes is launched, Meta won’t write Community Notes or decide which ones show up; they will be written and rated by contributing users. It will require agreement between people with a range of perspectives to help prevent biased ratings, the company said.
How experts are interpreting the shift
It is a choice of politics and not policy, experts said. A section of experts said the decision will hurt social media users who are looking for accurate, reliable information to make decisions about their everyday lives and interactions. “It’s unfortunate that this decision comes in the wake of external political pressure from a new administration and its supporters,” said Angie Holan, director of International Fact-Checking Network, a global network which has AFP among its member organisations. Holan was referring to US President-elect Donald Trump’s administration taking charge on January 20. There could be devastating consequences if Meta broadens its policy shift beyond US borders, to programmes covering more than 100 countries, IFCN said.
Experts also rejected Meta’s reason that fact-checking was a tool to suppress free speech. They said Meta now will rely on just anyone to stop misinformation from spreading on their platforms. “If Meta is upset it created a tool to censor, it should look in the mirror,” AFP quoted Aaron Sharockman, executive director of US fact-checking organisation PolitiFact, as saying.
Meta’s announcement, however, was supported by supporters of Trump.
Impact of Meta’s move in India
As of now, Meta has not introduced the change to Community Notes in India. Notably, by changing the mode of fact check, Meta is not violating any law. The IT rules require inter-mediaries to take down misleading, vulgar and fake content. The decision should be seen in the context of whether quality fact-checking will continue to happen in case it switches to Community Notes in India.
Experts say if introduced in India, it would affect Indian fact-checking organisations who have a payment mechanism with Meta to fact-check information on its platforms. One of the challenges with Community Notes would be coordinated manipulation from a section of users with the same agenda or political identity, which might impact the fact check using Community Notes, given its crowdsourced nature.
Loss of business for fact-checkers
In India, Meta has 12 fact-checking partners, including some mainstream publishers such as PTI, AFP, India Today Fact Check, and The Quint, as well as a number of smaller firms. A number of small fact-checkers are heavily reliant on funding from Meta, and any change in the company’s approach to fact-checking would mean job losses at those companies, while some may even shut down. Experts say this would be possibly the biggest existential threat many fact-checkers will face. The fact-checkers would now have to depend on single projects or crowdsourced funding to survive in the industry. Further, fact-checkers also rely on Meta platforms for traction on their work, which drives traffic to their websites. Even as those companies can continue to do fact-checking independently, the same could somewhat impact the traction of users on their websites.