The era of Meta's fact-checking for content moderation in posts, Reels, status updates, and more is now over as the company recently announced that it officially ended its operations at the start of this week.
Instead of getting fact-checks on Meta's social media apps, the likes of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will receive the "Community Notes-like" experience to verify information for the American public.
Since announcing it last January, Meta has received massive criticism for their decision to ditch fact-checking methods, particularly as Community Notes would come from unpaid collaborators for said topics.
Meta Ends US Fact-Checking Methods on Its Platforms
According to the latest post by Meta's Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan via X, the company's fact-checking methods have ended effective this Monday, April 7, as promised earlier this year. This only applies to its United States operations, which means that other global regions of its operations would still rely on these experiences.
Meta's third-party fact checkers and program will no longer watch over the platform and scour content from users and businesses in the United States, including all posts, images, videos, and more.
CNET reported that Meta first announced the removal of its fact-checking program last January, amidst the nearing inauguration of the then-President Elect Donald Trump, with Mark Zuckerberg revealing that they are now fostering free speech.
Facebook, Instagram, Threads to Use Community Notes
Starting this week, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will receive Community Notes that are currently rolling out nationwide. It was revealed by Kaplan that users will see a gradual roll out of Community Notes "with no penalties attached" to them.
While it remains unknown how much this will impact Meta's platforms, it can be seen from X's operations, which rely entirely on Community Notes, that there has been a significant proliferation of misinformation and fake news on the platform.
The End of Meta's Fact-Checking Spark Controversies
The start of the year 2025 was a significant one for Meta as the company planned to ditch its fact-checking measures on its social media to opt for Community Notes. It was revealed that Meta is now also championing free speech on its platforms, similar to Elon Musk's X.
Over the past years, there have been several "Meta boycott" campaigns that the public pushed for because of the company's unpopular decisions and controversial features, but this happened again earlier this year. Many users have reportedly searched for methods to delete their Facebook and Instagram accounts via Google after it announced the Community Notes-style content moderation on its platforms.
When the then-Twitter introduced its Community Notes feature, it still had content moderation and a fact-checking body available on the platform, which made it a reinforcement to their anti-misinformation efforts. However, Musk entirely removed fact-checking from the experience as they pushed for free speech.
