Oversight Board asks Meta not to replace fact-checking with Community Notes

Meta’s Oversight Board asked the company not to replace fact-checking with Community Notes, according to a statement seen by AFP overnight Friday, after it said it was testing the crowdsourcing system in Latin America.

Meta announced on Wednesday that it had begun testing Community Notes in 16 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, in a step toward replacing the professional fact-checking programme it runs with partner organisations across the region.

The list covers Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Meta said it hoped the notes would become the standard way it adds context to misleading posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, ending the need for the fact-checking programme.

It gave no timeline for that transition.

Meta’s Oversight Board, the quasi-independent body the company funds to review its moderation decisions, said Community Notes were not an adequate replacement for fact-checking, explaining that the notes themselves often rely on fact-checking.

“Community notes could contribute to real-world harms that Meta has a responsibility to avoid or remedy,” it said in a statement dated Thursday.

“We urge Meta not to consider community notes a direct replacement for fact-checking, and to use all the tools that best address the challenge of misinformation on its platforms in ways that both protect free expression and address potential harms.”

The board previously warned that the global rollout of Community Notes risked human rights harms in politically polarized countries and during tense elections.

AFP is among the fact-checking organizations that participate in Meta’s program in Latin America and elsewhere.

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