The era of Facebook, Instagram and Threads using fact-checking to verify information on its platforms is over, as of Monday, April 7, according to Meta’s chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan. He said in a post on X, “By Monday afternoon, our fact-checking program in the US will be officially over. That means no new fact checks and no fact checkers.”
In early January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company was going to wind down its decade-old program using third-party fact-checkers approved by the International Fact-Checking Network, to verify Facebook and Instagram posts, including videos and images.
Now Meta will be using Community Notes generated by the users themselves. “In place of fact checks, the first Community Notes will start appearing gradually across Facebook, Threads & Instagram, with no penalties attached,” Kaplan said in his post.
Meta’s announcement in early January came weeks before the inauguration of US President Donald Trump for a second term. It was part of a large shift among some of the top tech companies including Apple, Amazon and Google to more closely align with the new administration’s agenda. X owner Elon Musk replied to Kaplan’s post on X with “Cool.”
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