‘A step backward’: IFCN condemns Meta’s move to end third-party fact-checking

Responding to Meta’s decision to end its third-party fact-checking programme, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) said on Thursday this move “threatens to undo nearly a decade of progress in promoting accurate information online”, calling it a “step backward for those who want to see an internet that prioritises accurate and trustworthy information”.

On January 7, Meta announced massive changes to its content moderation policies, including ending its fact-checking programme. It supported fact-checking organisations to check claims in viral Facebook and Instagram posts. It is now being replaced with Community Notes, similar to X (formerly Twitter).

Joel Kaplan, Meta’s chief global affairs officer said on Tuesday: “We will end the current third-party fact-checking programme in the United States and instead begin moving to a Community Notes program. 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. We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing — and one that’s less prone to bias.”

In its statement, the IFCN, a body of more than 170 fact-checking organisations across the world, said the fact-checking programme “helped people have a positive experience on Facebook, Instagram and Threads by reducing the spread of false and misleading information in their feeds.”

Contradicting Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s assertion that the programme had become a “tool to censor” and that “fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they’ve created”, the IFCN said the reality is that “Meta staff decided on how content found to be false by fact-checkers should be downranked or labelled.”

The statement said that fact-checkers over the years suggested to Meta how it could improve this labelling to be less intrusive and avoid even the appearance of censorship, but Meta never acted on those suggestions. It added that Meta exempted politicians and political candidates from fact-checking as a precautionary measure, even when they spread known falsehoods.

The IFCN also said the decision to replace the fact-checking programme with Community Notes will not result in a “positive user experience, as X has demonstrated. Research shows that many Community Notes never get displayed, because they depend on widespread political consensus rather than on standards and evidence for accuracy.”

The statement, addressing likely political reasons behind Zuckerberg’s decision, noted: “Your announcement’s timing came after President-Elect Donald Trump’s election certification and as part of a broader response from the tech industry to the incoming administration. Mr Trump himself said your announcement was ‘probably’ in response to threats he’s made against you.”

Meta’s plans to end the fact-checking programme apply only to the United States at present. But the move will be applicable globally in the months to come. “Fact-checking is essential to maintaining shared realities and evidence-based discussion, both in the United States and globally,” the IFCN said, adding, “We remain ready to work again with Meta, or any other technology platform that is interested in engaging fact-checking as a tool to give people the information they need to make informed decisions about their daily lives.”

The IFCN statement has been signed by various fact-checking organisations in India and abroad, including India Today Fact Check, Boom, Factly, Newschecker, AFP, Full Fact, Snopes, and more.