Meta announced in January that it would end third-party fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram, replacing it with a user-driven Community Notes system. The change began in the U.S. and is expected to expand to other countries.
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian called the move “pragmatic” and said Meta’s original fact-checking efforts were unrealistic and unsustainable.
Critics warn that removing fact-checking could lead to more misinformation.
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Meta is receiving support from Reddit following its decision to end third-party fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram. The company announced the policy change in January, just days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Instead of using outside fact-checkers, Meta now relies on a Community Notes system, which allows users to add context to posts made by others.
Ohanian calls move ‘pragmatic’
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian called the decision “pragmatic” and described Meta’s previous fact-checking efforts as “untenable.”
Speaking at the Web Summit in Qatar, he told CNBC that fact-checking on a global scale — and in real time — was never going to work.
“You always want to under-promise, over-deliver — it was setting expectations that were impossible to meet,” Ohanian said. “So this area of gray to basically say, ‘Look, we’re going to leave it up to the community to do a kind of community voting’ — I think Twitter implemented it quite well, and it makes sense they are copying it.”
Meta calls decision an alignment with free speech
Meta’s shift away from fact-checking began in the U.S. this year, but the company has plans to implement the Community Notes system in other countries as well.
“Meta’s platforms are built to be places where people can express themselves freely. That can be messy. On platforms where billions of people can have a voice, all the good, bad and ugly is on display. But that’s free expression.”
Joel Kaplan, Meta’s Chief of Global Affairs
Kaplan also acknowledged the challenges Meta faced with its previous system.
“When we launched our independent fact-checking program in 2016, we were very clear that we didn’t want to be the arbiters of truth,” he said. “That’s not the way things played out, especially in the United States.”
Comparisons to X’s Community Notes
In its announcement, Meta credited X, formerly Twitter, for successfully implementing a similar Community Notes system. The company framed the change as a more effective approach to maintaining free speech.
Critics raise concerns over misinformation
Not everyone supports the shift. Some critics argue that the change could lead to an increase in misinformation on Meta’s platforms.
A fellow at the Brookings Institution, Valerie Wirtschafter, expressed concerns over the decision.
“This type of wisdom-of-the-crowd approach can be really valuable,” Wirtschafter said. “But doing so without proper testing and viewing its viability around scale is really, really irresponsible. Meta’s already having a hard time dealing with bad content as it is, and it’s going to get even worse.
