Meta is ending its U.S. fact-checking program and replacing it with a system similar to Elon Musk's “Community Notes” on X, Facebook's owner announced Tuesday.
The new model will allow users of the social media sites Meta, Facebook, Instagram and Threads to flag posts that may be misleading and require more context, rather than placing responsibility on independent organizations and fact-checking experts.
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to CBC News that the changes will not apply to Canada or anywhere else outside the U.S. for now.
“We are starting with the launch of Social Notes in (the US) and will refine it over the course of the year before expanding the service to other countries,” the spokesperson said.
Meta's Director of Global Affairs, Joel Kaplan, wrote a blog post explaining this change.
“Experts, like everyone else, have their biases and points of view. This was reflected in the choices some made about what and how to fact-check,” Kaplan wrote. “A program intended to inform has too often become a tool of censorship.”
Kaplan added that its efforts over the years to manage content on its platforms have expanded “to the point where we are making too many mistakes, frustrating our users and too often impeding the free expression we wanted to enable.”
The changes were partly influenced by Trump's victory
CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the changes are partly due to political events, including Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election.
“The recent election also feels like a cultural turning point toward re-prioritizing speech,” Zuckerberg said in an online video.
The company said it will begin rolling out Community Notes in the United States in the next few months and will refine the model over the course of the year.
“We've seen this approach work with X — where it allows the community to decide when posts may be misleading and require more context,” Kaplan said in a blog post.
Meta will also stop degrading verified content and use a label to inform users that there is additional information associated with a post, rather than the company's current method of displaying full-screen warnings that users must click before they can even view the post.