Meta will begin testing Community Notes for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads on March 18. The Community Notes model, first announced in January, is intended “to be less biased than the third-party fact-checking program it replaces,” Meta says.
The company did not provide specific examples of biased fact-checking; the system launched in December 2016 after CEO Mark Zuckerberg downplayed the idea of social media impacting elections as a “crazy idea.” As of last year, Meta had 10 fact-checking partners in the US, including FactCheck.org and USA Today. Flagged content was downranked in feeds.
Today, Meta said Community Notes will be “less prone to bias…because publishing a note requires agreement between different people.” Fact-checked posts, however, won’t be downranked. “Notes will provide extra context, but they won’t impact who can see the content or how widely it can be shared,” Meta says. Fact-checking partners “are free to become” Community Notes contributors.
Becoming a Contributor
Meta started accepting contributor sign-ups last month; about 200,000 people have signed up. To become a contributor, one must be based in the US, be 18+, have an account older than six months “in good standing,” and have a verified phone number or enroll in two-factor authentication.
Each note can be 500 characters, must include a link, and adhere to Meta’s Community Standards. All notes are written by humans and are posted only if “enough contributors” agree they’re helpful. At launch, Community Notes will be supported in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Portuguese, with more languages to come.
Meta won’t display author names on the notes. They will simply state, “People added a community note,” and show when it was posted. This approach focuses on the quality of the context provided rather than the identity of the contributors. Once a note appears, users can rate it as either “Not helpful” or “helpful.”Meta is rolling out this feature in the US first; the fact-checking system will remain in place elsewhere. Once Meta is comfortable with the beta testing phase, the company plans to expand the feature to all users in the US and eventually to global users.
What The Author Thinks
Community Notes could be a solid move forward for Meta, especially if the goal is to reduce biases in content moderation. The collaborative nature of the system—requiring agreement between multiple contributors—could offer a more balanced approach to flagging and adding context to content. However, how effective this system will be remains to be seen, and its success will largely depend on how much control Meta has in managing and ensuring fair evaluations
