Meta has announced a shift in its approach to content moderation. The tech giant will discontinue its third-party fact-checking program and introduce Community Notes, a collaborative initiative modelled after a similar feature on X (formerly Twitter).
“Starting in the US, we are ending our third-party fact-checking program and moving to a Community Notes model,” Meta stated.
According to Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta, the move aligns with the company’s commitment to free expression, a principle he noted as foundational to Meta’s mission.
“It’s time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram,” he said.
Zuckerberg attributed the shift to growing dissatisfaction with the current system, noting, “We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.”
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s Chief Global Affairs Officer, elaborated on the new initiative in a newsroom piece.
He explained, “We’ve seen this approach work on X, where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context. People across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for others to see.”
Zuckerberg also announced other policy changes, including revisiting restrictions on sensitive topics like immigration and gender, which he described as increasingly “out of touch with mainstream discourse.”
Notably, Meta plans to relocate its U.S.-based content moderation teams to Texas to rebuild trust. Zuckerberg expressed frustration with censorship laws in Europe and other regions. He emphasised the importance of working with the U.S. government to push back against global pressures that he said have emboldened other countries to demand more restrictive measures.
“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,” Zuckerberg concluded.
He added that the community notes system will be phased in over the coming month.