From Engadget · Karissa Bell · · 1m 30s
Meta takes Community Notes to Latin America
Meta is testing crowd-sourced fact checks across 16 Latin American countries, and it hints professional fact checkers are next to go.
In brief
Meta is testing crowd-sourced fact checks across 16 Latin American countries, and it hints professional fact checkers are next to go. Meta is treating Community Notes as a replacement for paid fact checking, and it is starting in countries the Oversight Board flagged as the riskiest places to try. Originally reported…
Community Notes goes abroad
Meta is testing crowd-sourced fact checks in 16 Latin American countries, from Mexico and Colombia to Venezuela and Nicaragua. It is the first expansion since the US rollout over a year ago.
Quiet for now
Contributors are being onboarded to write notes on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, but nothing they write will be shown to users yet. Meta says third-party fact checking is untouched during testing.
“there will be no changes to third-party fact checking”
The plan is replacement
Meta's own blog post says that once the product works, it will start publishing notes and transition the paid fact-checking program, the same move it made in the US.
“we will look at fully launching, beginning to publish Community Notes and transitioning our third-party fact checking program”
Fact checkers push back
The International Fact-Checking Network said it was deeply concerned, arguing volunteer notes cannot carry the load on their own.
“The community notes program alone is simply not adequate when it comes to reducing the impact of harmful falsehoods on its platforms”
Advice Meta skipped
The Oversight Board spent 15,000 words warning against rollouts in places with high polarization, ongoing conflict or organized disinformation. It wants both systems to coexist, not one to swallow the other.
“One doesn't have to replace or substitute for the other, they can coexist”
The 3 percent problem
Indicator found only 3 percent of Instagram posts debunked by AFP's US bureau since April also got a Community Note. Most of what professionals catch, the crowd never touches.
The bottom line
Meta is treating Community Notes as a replacement for paid fact checking, and it is starting in countries the Oversight Board flagged as the riskiest places to try.
