The Chief Executive Officer of X Linda Yaccarino has labelled the decision to scrap fact-checkers at Facebook and Instagram as “really exciting”.
Earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg — the co-founder of Facebook and current CEO of parent company, Meta — confirmed the Californian company would dramatically scale back content moderation starting in the United States of America in favour of X-style Community Notes.
In a video message posted on Instagram, which is also owned and operated by Meta, the 40-year-old multi-billionaire explained the calculation behind the sweeping changes: “We’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.”
Anyone can amend a Community Note to a post on X, formerly Twitter, but it will only be shown publicly after a certain number of users have rated it as useful X PRESS OFFICE
Zuckerberg claimed the fact-checkers amounted to censorship and was riddled with bias. Meta introduced its fact-checking initiative in December 2016, shortly after the election of Donald Trump, amid growing concerns about the spread of misinformation on social media platforms.
This multi-million dollar scheme was launched in response to accusations that fake news had influenced the election outcome, particularly through Russian disinformation campaigns. Although Zuckerberg initially dismissed claims that Facebook played a significant role in the election’s results as “crazy”, he later agreed on the need for a robust fact-checking system to combat misinformation on his social networks.
The fact-checking initiative involved partnerships with over 90 independent organizations worldwide, including well-known entities like PolitiFact and FactCheck.org.
These organizations were tasked with evaluating content flagged as potentially false or misleading, using a tool developed by Meta to sift through user reports and algorithmic flags. This system aimed to demote misinformation in user feeds while providing context through labels on disputed posts.
Crucially, the fact-checkers were never granted the power to remove content from Facebook or Instagram, only negatively impact its performance in the algorithm that promotes photos, videos, news content, and other content in the News Feed of billions of people worldwide.
With the initiative now dead, Facebook and Instagram will rely on user-based notes. Zuckerberg claims the decision to scale back content moderation systems will allow for more free speech on its sites. However, the CEO of Meta has also admitted that his company would “catch less bad stuff”.
Speaking during a recent appearance at the CES technology show in Las Vegas, X CEO Ms Yaccarino reacted to the development by telling Mark Zuckerberg: “Welcome to the party.”
Linda Yaccarino appeared on-stage at the CES tradeshow in Las Vegas for a discussion about social media, which ended with a Q&A that touched on the introduction of Community Notes
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Ms Yaccarino, who served as Chairwoman of Global Advertising & Partnerships at NBCUniversal from 2011 to 2023 before being poached by Elon Musk to run X following his $44bn takeover of Twitter, discussed the shake-up at Meta during an on-stage Q&A at CES.
“I think it’s really exciting that when you think about Community Notes being good for the world,” the executive said. “Think about it as this global collective consciousness, keeping each other accountable at global scale in real time. And it couldn’t be more validating than to see that Mark and Meta realised that.
“When you think about Community Notes, Mark and Meta realised that it’s the most effective, fastest fact-checking, without bias… also it inspires great behaviour. Human behaviour is inspired because when a post is noted, it’s dramatically shared less, so that’s the power of Community Notes.”
She added: “We say: Mark, Meta, welcome to the party.”
Despite her championing of the Community Notes system, studies have shown X’s system has failed to counter false and misleading claims – including about the US presidential election last year.
A study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) from October found that 74% of posts with accurate Community Notes were not being shown to users, while hundreds of misleading posts in the study’s sample which did not display available Community Notes had amassed more than two billion views.
Responding to the announcement from Meta, CCDH Chief Executive Imran Ahmed said: “By abandoning its fact-checking programme in favour of a discredited ‘Community Notes’ system, Meta is turbocharging the spread of unchallenged online lies, worsening the spread of hate, and creating more risks to our communities, democracy, public health, and the safety of our kids.
“Meta is now saying it’s up to you to spot the lies on its platforms, and that it’s not their problem if you can’t tell the difference, even if those lies, hate, or scams end up hurting you. Rather than stepping up to the challenge of responsible platform governance, Meta is retreating from accountability.
“This is huge step back for online safety, transparency, and accountability — and it could have terrible offline consequences in the form of real-world harm.”
Mark Zuckerberg directly referred to Community Notes on X as inspiration for the shake-up coming to Facebook and Instagram. He said: “We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see.”
Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg left his role at Meta to make way for one of the most visible Republicans working at the company, Joel Kaplan, to takeover as Head of Global Affairs PRESS ASSOCIATION
The change follows sustained criticism from Republicans, who have long viewed Meta’s fact-checking system as unfair to those on the right of politics. With the introduction of X-like community notes, Meta appears to be aligning itself with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
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Multi-billionaire Zuckerberg met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in November, followed by Meta donating £1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund. The company has also appointed Joel Kaplan, a prominent Republican and former George W Bush advisor, as its new chief global affairs officer, replacing Nick Clegg.
Trump had previously described Meta’s Facebook as an “enemy of the people,” though the company has since worked to rebuild its relationship with the Republican leader. Meta also confirmed plans to remove restrictions on several controversial topics, including immigration and gender identity.
The new policies will be implemented gradually over several months, beginning in the United States. There’s no word on when the community notes-like functionality will be coming to the UK, mainland Europe, or rest of the world. Facebook boasts over 3 billion users globally, making it the most popular social network.
Additional Reporting By Martyn Landi, PA Technology Correspondent
