Meta is expanding its Community Notes program, a crowdsourced fact-checking initiative that launched in the U.S. earlier this year. The company is introducing new features, including user alerts for interactions with posts that have received a Community Note, and the ability for any user to request or rate the helpfulness of a note.
Meta’s Chief Information Security Officer, Guy Rosen, described these additions as “tests.” Since the program’s inception, more than 70,000 contributors have authored 15,000 notes, with only 6% being published. This figure is relatively small considering the large user base across Meta’s platforms.
The Community Notes system is similar to the one implemented by X (formerly Twitter) in 2021. Both systems add notes to posts when users with differing viewpoints reach a consensus. However, critics have raised concerns about the effectiveness of these systems in combating misinformation.
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has argued that achieving the required consensus can be challenging and that misinformation can spread rapidly before a note is added. A study cited by the CDT revealed that over 70% of accurate notes related to U.S. election misinformation were never displayed to users.
The CDT also questioned the suitability of the system for visual platforms like Instagram and Reels, as well as private Facebook Groups. The nonprofit suggested that Meta should include metrics demonstrating the number of people who view corrected information, enhance transparency by making Notes data publicly accessible, and reconsider its decision to discontinue fact-checking on the platform.
