Meta supervisory board warns against replacing fact checks with community notes

Before the test run of a community-based fact check system from the digital company Meta, an independent supervisory board warned against replacing the previous fact check with the new system. “We urge Meta not to view Community Notes as a direct replacement for fact checks and to use whatever tools best address the challenge of misinformation on the platforms,” the supervisory board said.

With the “Community Notes” system, users can add their own context to posts on social networks. Meta had previously announced that it was testing “Community Notes” in several South American countries. Since Wednesday, users in 16 Spanish-speaking countries in the region have been able to add comments to online posts on the group's social networks. So far, however, it is only a test run; the comments are not yet visible to other users. Meta operates, among other things, the networks Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

The supervisory board explained that “community notes” could “enrich important debates and promote free expression.” But they could also “contribute to real damage that Meta is responsible for preventing or repairing.”

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A community-based comment system is already used by Tesla founder Elon Musk's competitor X. There, the user-based checking system has already replaced traditional fact checking by independent agencies. If the test is successful, Meta also says it is planning such a step. However, the group has not yet commented on the possible timing. First they wanted to be convinced of the functionality of the new system, they said.

Countries participating in Meta's pilot include Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

At the beginning of last year, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would initially discontinue its fact check in the USA. Fact-checkers were “simply too politically biased,” Zuckerberg said at the time. In the USA in particular, they had "destroyed more trust than they created," he said, justifying the move. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly described fact checks on online networks as “censorship”.