Meta is set to launch its Community Notes feature, a crowdsourced misinformation monitoring system, and will integrate open-source technology developed by Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).
The new initiative marks a shift in Meta’s approach to content moderation, replacing third-party fact-checking in the U.S.
Meta revealed details about Community Notes in a Thursday blog post, confirming that the system will use the same open-source algorithm that powers X’s Community Notes.
“As X’s algorithm and program information is open source—meaning free and available for anyone to use—we can build on what X has done, learn from researchers who have studied it, and improve the system for our own platforms,” Meta said in the announcement.
While the company plans to modify the algorithm over time to better suit its platforms—Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—it may also explore different ranking and rating systems for how Community Notes function.
Meta Shifts Away from Third-Party Fact-Checking
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Community Notes in January as a replacement for third-party fact-checking in the U.S.
The move is part of a broader policy change that also relaxed some of Meta’s content moderation guidelines.
Starting next week, U.S. users will begin testing the Community Notes feature. The company previously announced that anyone over 18 with a verified phone number can apply to become a contributor.
Key Features of Meta’s Community Notes
- Users can submit Community Notes on nearly all types of content, including posts from Meta executives, politicians, and public figures.
- Advertisements are exempt—contributors cannot submit notes on ads.
- Posts with Community Notes cannot be appealed, but there is no penalty for flagged content.
- Notes will not affect visibility—flagged content can still be shared and seen by users.
“Notes will provide extra context, but they won’t impact who can see the content or how widely it can be shared,” Meta stated.
Meta Won’t Open-Source Its Community Notes System—Yet
Despite using X’s open-source technology, Meta has no immediate plans to publicly release more technical details about its own version of Community Notes. However, Rachel Lambert, Meta’s director of product management, said the company is considering open-sourcing it in the future.
So far, around 200,000 people have signed up to be Community Notes contributors, with Meta keeping the waitlist open for additional participants.
However, experts warn that Community Notes is not a substitute for professional fact-checking.
Neil Johnson, a physics professor at George Washington University, told CNBC in February that while crowdsourced moderation can help provide context, it remains an “imperfect system” that could be exploited by groups with political or ideological agendas.
Meta acknowledged this risk in its blog post, stating:
“Publishing a note requires agreement between different people, which safeguards against organized campaigns attempting to game the system and influence what notes get published or what they say.”
What’s Next for Meta’s Community Notes?
Meta intends to expand the program nationwide once it is confident in the effectiveness of the initial beta testing.
“Once we are comfortable that the program is working broadly the way we believe it should, we will continue to learn and improve it as we go,” the company said.
With Meta and X now using similar algorithms for crowdsourced content moderation, the battle against misinformation is taking a new, decentralized approach—but whether it proves more effective than traditional fact-checking remains to be seen.
With information from NBC News
