Meta's fact-checking partners say they were blindsided by the company's decision forgo third-party fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads support the Community Notes model and some say they are now trying to find out whether they can overcome the hole this leaves in their funding.
“We heard the news just like everyone else,” said Alan Duke, co-founder and editor-in-chief of fact-checking site Lead Stories, which began working with Meta in 2019. There was no prior notice.”
It was announced that Meta no longer intended to use their services a blog post by director of global affairs Joel Kaplan on Tuesday morning and an accompanying video from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, the company plans to rely on X-style Community Notes, which allow users to flag content they consider inaccurate or request further explanation.
Meta cooperates with dozens of fact-checking organizations and newsrooms globally, 10 of which are based in the US, where Meta's new rules will be applied for the first time.
“We were blown away by this,” Jesse Stiller, managing editor of Meta fact-checking partner Check Your Fact, told WIRED. His organization started working with Meta in 2019 and has 10 people working in the newsroom. “This was completely unexpected and beyond our reach. We were not aware that this decision was being considered until Mark posted the video overnight.”
News organizations that have worked with Meta to tackle the spread of misinformation on the platform since 2016 are trying to figure out how the change will impact them.
“We don't know what the future of the site will be,” Stiller said.
Duke said Lead Stories has diverse revenue streams and most of its operations are outside the US, but he asserted the decision will still have an impact on them. “The most painful part of this is the loss of several good, experienced journalists who will no longer be paid to research false claims found on the Meta platform,” Duke said.
For others, the financial impact is even more dire. An editor at the US-based fact-checking organization that works with Meta, who was not authorized to speak officially, told WIRED that Meta's decision “will eventually exhaust us” .
Meta did not respond to a request for comment on the partners' allegations or the financial impact its decision will have on some organizations.
Alexios Mantzarlis, who helped establish the first partnership between fact-checkers and Facebook between 2015 and 2019 as director of the International Fact-Checking Network.
Meta partners were also angered by Zuckerberg's accusations that fact-checkers had become too biased.
According to Duke, it was disappointing to hear Mark Zuckerberg accuse the organizations in Meta's third-party fact-checking program in the United States of being “too politically biased.” “Let me fact check that. The main story adheres to the highest journalistic and ethical standards according to the International Fact-Checking Network's code of principles. We fact-check without regard to where the false claim originates on the political spectrum.”