Meta’s fact-checking program in the US officially ends soon

Meta’s US fact-checking program will come to an end by Monday afternoon. In a post on X, Meta’s global policy head Joel Kaplan said there will be “no new fact checks and no fact checkers” across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads by that time as the company replaces it with Community Notes. Meta first announced its plans for an X-style Community Notes program in January, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying it would be “less prone to bias.” With Community Notes, contributors can write and rate notes that provide extra context for certain posts. The company started testing Community Notes on March 18th but said it wouldn’t publicly publish the notes to start. Now, Kaplan says Community Notes will start “appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads, and Instagram, with no penalties attached.” Meta still relies on its third-party fact-checking program in countries outside the US. It plans on bringing Community Notes to more countries in the future.