Meta Replaces Fact-Checking With X-Style Community Notes

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced significant updates to the company’s moderation policies on Tuesday, citing shifting cultural and political landscapes and a renewed commitment to free expression. The changes will impact Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, Meta’s largest platforms.

Zuckerberg revealed that Meta will replace its fact-checking program with a community-driven model similar to X’s Community Notes. “We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms,” he said. The company will also reverse previous efforts to limit political content in user feeds.

He criticized “governments and legacy media” for pressuring platforms to censor more content and acknowledged flaws in Meta’s current systems. “Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,” Zuckerberg explained.

In addition to scrapping some rules around contentious topics like immigration and gender, Meta will narrow its automated moderation to focus on “high severity violations” such as drug-related content, terrorism, and child exploitation. Less critical issues will rely on user reporting.

Zuckerberg framed these changes as essential ahead of upcoming elections, calling them a step toward prioritizing free speech and reducing errors in content moderation.