Meta’s controversial “community notes” system will begin rolling out next week. It incorporates the same open-source rating algorithm that Elon Musk used to address political bias and misinformation on X.
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On Thursday, the company announced in a blog post that Meta will begin testing the new community notes system on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads with users in the US starting March 18, 2025, before expanding to other countries.
Communuty Notes waitlist remains open
The company’s blog post said that 200,000 people have signed up to become Community Notes contributors, and the waitlist remains open for those who wish to participate. However, Meta will “gradually and randomly” admit contributors off the waitlist to the program and “will take time to test the writing and rating system before any notes are published publicly.”
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Meta also revealed that it’s embracing X’s Community Notes model, which allows contributors to write and rate notes, but notes “won’t be published unless contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them,” as well as adopting X’s open-source algorithm as the basis for its rating system. It further iterates in the post that “as our own version develops, we may explore different or adjusted algorithms to support how Community Notes are ranked and rated.”
In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that his social media platforms would abandon their current third-party fact-checking process and replace it with a system similar to the community notes model used by X, formerly Twitter. In a video explaining the decision, Zuckerberg criticized the current system and, in an effort to “restore free expression,” alluded to the fact that the social media platforms’ third-party fact-checkers have been prone to “political bias” and “too much censorship.”
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To contribute to Community Notes, editors must live in the US, be over 18, have an account over 6 months old and in good standing, and have a verified phone number or two-factor authentication. Contributors won’t be able to write notes on advertisements at launch but can contribute to “almost any other forms of content.” Moreover, Community Notes will be available in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Portuguese.
Criticism of crowdsources systems
Some have critiqued crowdsourced systems like Community Notes because X has become more filled with unfettered misinformation, conspiracy theories, a proliferation of neo-Nazi bot accounts, racist hate speech, and violence.
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Meta recently updated its Hateful Conduct policy to loosen restrictions on hate speech and derogatory remarks about races, nationalities, ethnic groups, sexual orientations, and gender identities. Since the recent election, many tech companies, especially Meta, have shifted their businesses to comply with the demands of the Trump administration.
As ZDNET’s Lance Whitney explains, “the new approach also comes at a time when business leaders like Zuckerberg are cozying up to Trump in hopes of currying favor and avoiding conflicts with the new administration” who has criticized Meta for censoring certain conservative viewpoints in the past.
Meta will still use its third-party fact-checking system in places without Community Notes, but plans to expand the new system globally are underway.
