Meta makes big move to launch Community Notes in the US next week

We've all seen the little notes under posts on X (formally Twitter) that debunk fake news and tackle misinformation, right? It is called Community Notes, and it was introduced after Twitter's acquisition by Elon Musk in 2022.

Now, Meta is launching a Community Notes feature in the US first on March 18 before rolling it out to other regions.

Meta is infamous for stealing ideas from other apps, so it's not really surprising to see Community Notes go to Instagram, Facebook, and Threads.

So, what's the deal with Community Notes? Think of it as a crowdsourced fact-checking system where users like you can contribute notes that directly fact-check claims in posts.

Why exactly is Meta doing this now? Well, they've faced criticism over the years about bias in their fact-checking processes. Remember how they have relied on third-party fact-checkers since 2016? Turns out that the system had its flaws.

Meta's VP of Public Policy, Neil Potts, admitted it was too biased, made too many errors, and was not scalable enough. Ouch!

This move might also be Meta's way of appeasing the Trump administration, which has criticized the company for censoring conservative viewpoints. It's all about giving more perspectives a voice on their platforms.

Now, let's talk about how Meta's Community Notes will work. Meta opened applications for contributors back in February. Once you're part of the network, you can suggest fact-check notes on posts. The community then votes on these notes.

The interesting part is that Meta's algorithm checks if contributors who typically disagree on posts find a note helpful. If they do, that note gets displayed. But here's the thing—just because a majority thinks a note is needed doesn't mean it will show up. And even if a community note is attached to a post, Meta won't downrank that post or account in their algorithms.

This approach has its pros and cons. On the plus side, research shows people tend to trust Community Notes more than flags from third-party fact-checkers. Another study on X's fact-checking system (which Meta is obviously modelling this after) showed that posts with Community Notes reduced the spread of misleading information by 61% on average.

However, there are drawbacks. The consensus requirement means fact-checks often happen after a post has already reached thousands or millions of people. It's like closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.