Meta's Oversight Board warns against ditching professional fact-checkers

Meta's Oversight Board has urged the social media giant to reconsider replacing professional fact-checking services with a community-driven alternative, citing concerns over content moderation standards.

The tech company has begun rolling out a crowdsourcing system similar to Twitter's Community Notes in Latin America, marking a shift away from its established network of third-party fact-checkers. The initiative allows users to add context and corrections to potentially misleading posts through a collaborative process.

The independent oversight body, which reviews Meta's content moderation decisions, warned that the new system may not adequately address misinformation at scale. Professional fact-checkers bring specialized training and expertise that volunteer-run programs cannot easily replicate, the board indicated.

Meta has not publicly detailed timelines for expanding the community notes approach to other regions, including Asia. The company has long relied on professional fact-checking partners to identify false or misleading content across its platforms, a system that has faced criticism for both under and over-moderation in various markets.

The move reflects broader industry trends toward reducing reliance on human moderators and professional services, though it raises questions about the effectiveness of crowdsourced fact-checking in combating coordinated disinformation campaigns.