Social Media User? Here’s What You Should Know About Meta Ending its Fact-Checking Program

On Jan. 7, Meta announced it will end its third-party fact-checking program and move to a Community Notes model. The new model will allow users to self-moderate by adding context to posts when needed. Meta will roll out Community Notes in the United States first.

“We’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” explained Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder, chairman and CEO, in a video statement. “We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms [Facebook, Instagram and Threads].”

Today, Meta relies on fact-checking partners who are certified by the International

Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). The IFCN is a subsidiary of the Poynter Institute, a journalism research organization dedicated to bringing together fact-checkers worldwide.

Meta’s new Community Notes program will emulate a similar program used by X, formerly Twitter.

“They empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see,” Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer, wrote in a statement. “We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing — and one that’s less prone to bias.”

So, what does this mean for brands, influencers, and general users?

Community Notes will impact content creators more than brands

Social media creators have evolved from enjoying brief, small-scale popularity to establishing themselves as full-fledged media companies in the new digital era of influencers. From the outset, an influencer’s toughest critic was the public eye. With Meta’s changes that glare will only grow stronger.  

While the public has never shied away from expressing its opinion, now content will be judged through a new, more scrutinized lens since the public will be the official first line of defense against misinformation on Meta’s platforms. As a result, creators will have to refine their messaging and stay on top of public perception now more than ever before.

Brands must size up Meta’s ad value

For brands, unconventional social media content isn’t going anywhere.

Some accounts, like Wendy’s, Scrub Daddy and Duolingo, thrive using a controversial, humorous posting style with high engagement and positive reactions from users, whereas others, like Burger King UK, are met with a less than resounding response with comments criticizing the company’s food menu and overall quality.

There is always a risk that a social media campaign will backfire, leading to negative online comments, especially if it pushes boundaries. Now, with Meta users acting as fact-checkers, this may tone down attempts at risky humor, if they haven’t already established that voice. However, most experts expect brands won’t make drastic changes to their overall content marketing efforts.

Brands should keep an eye on public reaction to Meta’s new U.S. fact-checking policy, however. Brands may find it difficult to ensure advertising campaigns are not associated with misleading content. Social media managers will need to do their due diligence in quality control and research before allocating their paid social budgets, while also monitoring their campaigns more closely to discover misinformation or biases that may be tied to their content.

One thing is for sure. No matter how the public receives the policy, ad dollars are on the table.  

It will be tougher to navigate a more intimidating digital landscape

When it comes to balancing fact and opinion, there are few places more difficult to find that balance than social media. And that’s even before Meta’s new policy changes. There will always be conflict in comment sections as users trade posts disproving one another – sometimes simply for their own entertainment.

How has a Community Notes approach worked out for X? To start, when a note is added to a user’s X post, it’s often not taken seriously or is disregarded in future posts. Some users make fun of the fact that a post is “Community Noted.”

Will similar attitudes arise on Meta’s platforms? Will the social media landscape become even more divided as platforms that cater to political ideologies or fringe beliefs are introduced? How will that affect how and what content creators share on its platforms? How will brands respond?

The answers to those questions will determine how influencers and organizations engage with social media in the future.

Platform Safety Is an Increasing Concern

Meta claims its current fact-checkers are not working and many social media users believe X is an unfriendly environment where community moderation doesn’t work. So where does that leave us?

Concerns over user and platform safety will only rise, we believe. The spread of misinformation can reinforce existing biases that cause unwelcoming and aggressive discourse while creating echo chambers that can quickly run rampant due to the nature of social media.

Users may be exposed only to information that confirms their pre-existing beliefs which can lead to platform polarization. This also creates greater difficulty in identifying trustworthy sources, potentially leading users to struggle to distinguish between credible and unreliable information, diminishing trust in creators and brands.

Without guidelines for user and platform safety, Meta’s approach to free expression across Facebook, Instagram and Threads might start to take shape similar to X – painting them in an unfavorable light by users.

The Falls & Co. team is actively keeping a lookout for how community management and content creation begin to shift in the U.S. following Meta’s changes to best serve our clients and their customers.

If you have any specific questions, reach out to the social team by contacting us here.