Meta is expanding its Community Notes program, a crowdsourced fact-checking initiative launched in the U.S. earlier this year, introducing new features to enhance user experience and provide more transparency.
The company is rolling out user alerts for interactions with posts that have received a Community Note and allowing any user to request or rate the helpfulness of a note. According to Meta’s Chief Information Security Officer, Guy Rosen, these additions are considered “tests.” Since the program’s inception, more than 70,000 contributors have authored 15,000 notes, with only 6% being published.
The Community Notes system operates similarly to the one implemented by X (formerly Twitter) in 2021, adding notes to posts when users with differing viewpoints reach a consensus. However, critics have raised concerns about the effectiveness of these systems in combating misinformation. The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) has argued that achieving the required consensus can be challenging and that misinformation can spread rapidly before a note is added.
A study cited by the CDT revealed that over 70% of accurate notes related to U.S. election misinformation were never displayed to users. The nonprofit questioned the suitability of the system for visual platforms like Instagram and Reels, as well as private Facebook Groups. The CDT suggested that Meta should include metrics demonstrating the number of people who view corrected information, enhance transparency by making Notes data publicly accessible, and reconsider its decision to discontinue fact-checking on the platform.
