Meta ends fact-checking: The democracy movement reacts

Leaders in the U.S. democracy community are voicing their frustration over Meta’s latest move many deem an attack on its own content moderation policies.

Meta announced last week it was ending its independent fact-checker program in the U.S. and moving to a user-based system known as “community notes,” citing an attempt to embrace free speech and a personalized approach to political content.

Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, launched a third-party fact-checking program in 2016 amidst the presidential election. The program employed “independent experts” from organizations like Factcheck.org and PolitiFact to provide information about online content, particularly “viral hoaxes,” Meta said in a press release.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said these fact-checkers, however, have become “too politically biased” and “destroyed more trust than they created” in recent years.

PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief Katie Sanders begged to differ.

“From Meta’s statements, you might think we spend our days pursuing political claims from only one side of the aisle. Not the case,” Sanders wrote in a column. “We examine claims from across the political spectrum with the same scrutiny.”

Over the next months, Meta will launch its Community Notes model, similar to X, allowing users to add additional context to a post deemed false or misleading. Meta said whether Community Notes show up on a post won’t be decided by the company but by users to prevent biased ratings.

Meta’s latest move surprised many in the democracy community, as concerns over user safety and the growing spread of misinformation on the platform took center stage.

“Meta’s decision to eliminate fact-checkers is going to further degrade our information environment and allow an already unregulated tech industry to continue operating without accountability or guardrails… These are the largest and most powerful companies on Earth, yet they continue to play by a different set of rules than other traditional media companies,” said Issue One Founder and CEO Nick Penniman.

Truth in Common Founder and President Deanna Troust echoed Penniman’s sentiments in a column for The Fulcrum.

“The clear partisan collusion among the three of the most powerful individuals in the world — Zuckerberg, Musk and Trump — is the epitome of bias,” said Troust. “All three leaders have made a practice of attacking or downranking quality information sources. You can’t advocate for freedom of expression and against standards-based journalism; the First Amendment protects both.”

Meta’s Community Notes will roll out in the U.S. in the next few months.

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