Meta Introduces Community Notes on Facebook and Instagram

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is set to launch the initial phase of its Community Notes rollout next week. This new feature aims to leverage crowd-sourced input to tackle misinformation on the platforms, although analysts suggest its impact may be limited given the declining user engagement on Meta’s apps.

Despite a slower pace of posting among users, it is anticipated that certain misleading content may gain visibility as Meta shifts its moderation strategy. This move aligns the company more closely with past governmental critiques regarding censorship, notably from the Trump administration which opposed restrictions on his statements.

The Community Notes system is modeled after X’s existing Community Notes feature and will serve similar functions within the Facebook and Instagram environments. Users will be able to submit notes about posts, which will then be evaluated by other approved contributors.

Meta states, “Meta won’t decide what gets rated or written – contributors from our community will. And to safeguard against bias, notes won’t be published unless contributors with a range of viewpoints broadly agree on them. No matter how many contributors agree on a note, it won’t be published unless people who normally disagree decide that it provides helpful context.”

While this system is intended to reduce political bias, it has significant drawbacks. A study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that many of Community Notes concerning political topics on X went unseen, limiting their ability to provide valuable context. Additionally, another research effort revealed that many of Community Notes overall were never presented to users on X. These findings suggest that while the system attempts to filter out untrustworthy notes, valid contributions might still be stifled due to disagreements among raters.

The potential for exploitation also poses challenges, as organized groups can manipulate ratings within the system, potentially allowing misinformation to persist despite Meta’s intentions. Nonetheless, the Community Notes will be displayed as expandable contextual markers on posts, and users will also have the option to rate the usefulness of these notes to enhance the system.

Meta will initially restrict the Community Notes feature to U.S. users, with around 200,000 contributors already signed up to participate. “Notes won’t initially appear on content. We will start by gradually and randomly admitting people off of the waitlist and will take time to test the writing and rating system before any notes are published publicly,” the company stated.

When the notes do become available, traditional third-party fact-check labels will be phased out in favor of this community-based approach. Meta is hopeful that this shift will enhance the scale and reliability of content moderation compared with the previous systems. The company mentioned, “We expect Community Notes to be less biased than the third party fact-checking program it replaces, and to operate at a greater scale when it is fully up and running.”

Sources: Center for Countering Digital Hate, Social Media Today, Social Media Today (2), Meta Newsroom