Meta scraps third-party fact checking in favour of community notes
Meta has announced the sunset of its third-party fact-checking program, replacing it with Community Notes, a feature inspired by the approach pioneered by X (formerly Twitter). This move underscores Meta’s renewed focus on attempting to foster free expression while embracing a decentralised, community-driven model to combat misinformation.
In a blog post and accompanying video, the company detailed how this update aligns with its roots in open communication. “Community Notes empower users to provide context for posts they find potentially misleading. A diverse range of contributors collaboratively determines what context would be most helpful for others,” Meta stated.
The shift towards community notes is being framed as a response to concerns over bias in traditional fact-checking models from its users. “We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing – and one that’s less prone to bias,” Meta explained.
This update echoes CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s 2019 Georgetown speech, which highlighted the platform’s role in amplifying voices while being responsive to user feedback and policy impacts.
Whether this approach resonates with users—and mitigates misinformation without external verification—remains to be seen, but it marks a clear shift in Meta’s product strategy for 2025.
As expected, this update by the technology giant has amassed a divisive response from the public, with many having expressed concerns about a culture shift towards offence and harm, as highlighted by Steven Bartlett in his LinkedIn post. What do you think of Meta's shift to community notes? Let us know in the comments below or by emailing editor@mindtheproduct.com.
Discover more content on Mind the Product
About the author
Louron Pratt
Louron serves as the Editor at Mind the Product, bringing nearly a decade of experience in editorial positions across business and technology publications. For any editorial inquiries, you can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.
