Meta Begins Testing Community Notes on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads
- Key Takeaways:
- Meta is launching a test of its Community Notes feature across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the U.S.
- This new system aims to provide context to posts through crowd-sourced contributions.
- Community Notes is intended to be less biased than the previous third-party fact-checking program.
- Notes will initially not be visible to the public as the system undergoes testing and refinement.
- Meta will use X’s open-source algorithm as a foundation for its rating system.
In a significant shift in its approach to content moderation, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, announced on March 13, 2025, the commencement of testing for its new Community Notes feature in the United States. This move signals a departure from the company’s previous reliance on third-party fact-checkers and introduces a crowd-sourced system for adding context to posts across its major social media platforms.
Replacing Third-Party Fact-Checking: A Shift in Strategy
Meta’s decision to transition to Community Notes follows an announcement in January 2025 that it would be ending its third-party fact-checking program. The company explained that the rationale behind this change is the belief that a community-driven system can offer a less biased perspective by allowing a wider range of individuals with diverse viewpoints to contribute context to online content. This reflects a broader industry trend of exploring alternative methods for combating misinformation and disinformation on social media.
How Community Notes Will Function: Leveraging Crowd Wisdom
The Community Notes feature, drawing inspiration from X’s (formerly Twitter) existing system, will allow eligible users to write and rate notes on various forms of content, including posts from Meta itself, its executives, politicians, and other public figures (excluding advertisements initially). Meta will not directly dictate what content gets annotated; instead, this will be driven by contributions from the community. To participate, users must be over 18, have an account older than six months in good standing, and have either a verified phone number or two-factor authentication enabled.
Ensuring Accuracy and Limiting Bias: A Unique Rating System
A key aspect of Meta’s Community Notes system is its mechanism for ensuring accuracy and mitigating bias. Unlike traditional fact-checking where a single organization makes a determination, notes will only be published if they achieve broad agreement among contributors with differing viewpoints. This is not a simple majority rule; even if many contributors agree on a note, it will not be published unless individuals who typically hold opposing views also deem it to provide helpful context. This requirement aims to safeguard against organized campaigns attempting to manipulate the system. Initially, author names will not be attached to notes to encourage ratings based on the helpfulness of the context rather than the author’s identity.
Initial Testing Phase and Future Rollout
Meta is adopting a cautious approach to the rollout of Community Notes. While approximately 200,000 potential contributors in the U.S. have signed up, notes will not immediately appear publicly. The company will gradually admit individuals from the waitlist and will dedicate time to rigorously test the writing and rating system before making any notes visible to the broader user base. Meta will initially utilize X’s open-source algorithm as the foundation for its rating system, allowing it to build upon existing technology and adapt it for its own platforms. The feature will initially support six commonly used languages in the U.S. and will expand to more languages over time. Once Meta is confident that the system is functioning as intended based on the initial beta testing, Community Notes will be rolled out across the United States. At that point, the third-party fact-checking program will cease to operate in the U.S.
Potential Implications and Industry Impact
The introduction of Community Notes by Meta represents a significant experiment in content moderation. The success of this approach in providing accurate and unbiased context will be closely watched by the social media industry and the public. While Meta expresses optimism that this system will be less prone to bias and operate at a greater scale, the effectiveness of relying on crowd-sourced moderation will ultimately depend on the robustness of its rating algorithm and the engagement of its community of contributors. The absence of penalties like reduced distribution for posts with notes also marks a notable difference from the previous fact-checking model. The long-term impact of this shift on the spread of misinformation and the quality of online discourse remains to be seen as the testing phase progresses and the system is eventually rolled out to the wider user base.