Meta platforms will start testing Community Notes based on X’s algorithms

The news: Around 200,000 Facebook, Instagram, and Threads users will begin testing Meta’s Community Notes writing and rating system Tuesday. The program is part of the company’s efforts to reduce political bias and “overenforcement” in content moderation.

• Community Notes authors need to be over 18 years old and have an account that’s at least six months old. The test won’t publish author names or allow notes on advertisements.
• Notes on a post also won’t penalize users the way fact checks did, downgrade how widely a post is shared, or restrict who can see the content.

Meta will continue to use its third-party fact-checking system outside of the US until Community Notes are rolled out in other countries.

The challenge: The company is using X’s open-source algorithm for its rating system and said notes will only be published if contributors with a “broad range of viewpoints” agree on them.

Meta’s Safety Advisory Council said studies on X’s Community Notes program found that polarizing issues often can’t gain a consensus, leaving misinformation unchecked.

• The requirement for a variety of people to agree on a Note, Meta said, is a safeguard against groups that may try to “game the system” and influence what Community Notes get published.
• Meta said it plans to build off of X’s rating system and develop a version primed for its own platforms.

Do users care? Despite some outcry, the change may not affect consumer trust.

• That’s especially true among right-leaning influencers, who make up the majority of content creators on Facebook and Instagram. Only 9% of Republicans are less likely to use Meta platforms following the content moderation change, per a CivicScience survey, compared with 33% of Democrats.
• 53% of Meta users between the ages of 18 and 24 support its decision to replace fact-checking with Community Notes and 37% are neutral. Nearly half (47%) of users over 55 oppose the change.

Our take: Even if some users are okay with Meta’s decision, they are still at risk of seeing misinformation. Waiting for a broad range of people to come to an agreement on controversial issues could delay Community Notes postings, which may be a crucial matter for Meta to tackle as it tailors X’s algorithm.