Meta ended its third-party fact-checking program in the United States on April 7, 2025, and began introducing Community Notes gradually. The change did not end content moderation: Meta also announced narrower policy and enforcement changes, while retaining authority to enforce its Community Standards.
What Meta changed
Meta announced the changes on January 7, 2025. The company said it wanted to restore free expression and reduce enforcement mistakes, and characterized its former fact-checking program as overreaching. Those are Meta’s stated reasons, not independently established findings.
The announcement bundled several changes beyond fact-checking:
- Third-party fact-checking: Meta said it would end the U.S. program and move to Community Notes.
- Topic restrictions: Meta said it would lift restrictions on some topics it described as part of mainstream political discourse, including immigration, gender identity and gender.
- Enforcement priorities: The company said it would focus proactive enforcement on illegal and high-severity violations, and rely more on user reports for less severe policy violations.
- Political recommendations: Meta said it would personalize political content recommendations for people who wanted to see more of that material.
Meta said the policy changes could take a few weeks to implement. The announcement did not mean that all posts would be left up or that Meta would stop moderating content.
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What Community Notes are and how they work
Community Notes are contextual explanations written and rated by contributors. Meta’s March 13, 2025 launch description said a note would need agreement from contributors with different viewpoints rather than simple majority support. At launch, notes were to include a supporting link and be limited to 500 characters. Meta described those as initial design details; they should not be assumed to be unchanged in the current interface.
Meta began testing the writing, rating and algorithmic systems on Facebook, Instagram and Threads on March 18, 2025. Notes initially would not be shown publicly. On April 7, Meta said notes would begin appearing gradually as it tested the systems. Meta reported that about 200,000 people had signed up across the three apps by March 13; that was a waitlist figure, not a count of active contributors, published notes or people who saw a note.
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Meta said contributors could initially write in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese. The company’s current contributor information says contributors must be based in the U.S., be at least 18, have an account more than six months old and in good standing, and have a verified phone number or two-factor authentication enabled. Meta says a note may be visible on content that people in the U.S. can view, even if the person who posted it is elsewhere. Anyone may request a note; eligible contributors decide whether to write one.
The current product information excludes some content from notes, including ads, Reels, Stories and posts with limited audiences. Meta’s January 2025 announcement described an intended system in which the company would not write notes or decide which ones appeared. That description concerns how notes are selected; Meta says it still enforces Community Standards on contributors and notes.
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How the former fact-checking program differed
The former system separated the fact-check from Meta’s enforcement decision. PolitiFact’s January 7, 2025 reporting explained that partner fact-checkers assessed claims and produced fact-checks, while Meta controlled its rules and enforcement. Fact-checkers did not remove posts. Meta could attach a warning label linking to a fact-check and reduce the distribution of content rated false or misleading.
| Dimension | Former U.S. program | Community Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Who writes the assessment | Partner fact-checking organizations produced fact-checks; PolitiFact, January 7, 2025. | Contributors write notes; Meta, March 13, 2025. |
| How an assessment is reached | Editorial fact-checking by partner organizations; PolitiFact, January 7, 2025. | Contributor ratings require agreement across differing viewpoints, rather than simple majority support; Meta, March 13, 2025. |
| What happens to the post | Meta could label content and reduce its distribution; fact-checkers did not remove it; PolitiFact, January 7, 2025. | A note may appear if the system’s consensus requirements are met; Meta, March 13 and April 7, 2025. Meta’s current page says it continues to enforce its Community Standards. |
| Geographic scope | The change announced in January 2025 applied to the U.S. program; PolitiFact, January 7, 2025. | Meta’s current contributor information specifies U.S.-based eligibility; Meta, current Community Notes page. The Oversight Board’s March 2026 opinion discusses a planned expansion outside the U.S., not a completed international rollout. |
| Publication speed and coverage | Not stated in the cited PolitiFact report as a comparable measure. | Meta said notes would appear gradually during testing; comparable coverage and speed figures are not stated by Meta in the cited launch updates. |
| Transparency, appeal or review | Not stated in the cited PolitiFact report as a comparable measure. | Not stated in the cited Meta launch updates as a comparable measure. |
| Independent evidence of impact | Not stated in the cited sources as a directly comparable measure. | The Oversight Board said available U.S. beta data were limited and that it did not conduct a general effectiveness evaluation; Board opinion, March 2026. |
Is Meta’s change worldwide?
No. Meta’s January 2025 announcement and the reported April 7 end date concerned the U.S. third-party fact-checking program. Meta’s current contributor information still specifies U.S.-based eligibility for Community Notes, although notes may be visible on content viewable by U.S. users.
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Meta’s 2025 Human Rights Report confirms that it launched Community Notes in the U.S. during 2025. In March 2026, the Oversight Board issued guidance in response to Meta’s request about a planned expansion outside the U.S. The Board’s opinion treats expansion as a proposal to assess; it does not establish that an international rollout has happened.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is known about whether Community Notes work?
The available material does not establish that Meta’s U.S. Community Notes system is more or less effective than the former fact-checking program. The Oversight Board described the system as early-stage, said data available to it from the U.S. beta were limited, and explicitly did not conduct a general effectiveness evaluation. A signup total or the existence of a note is not, on its own, evidence of how many people saw it or whether it changed what they believed or shared.
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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteThe Board also raised questions about whether the approach can address misinformation linked to harm, citing delays in publishing notes, the limited number of notes published and dependence on the surrounding information environment. It recommended testing and ongoing data collection, and identified country-specific risks to consider before expansion, including contributor safety and privacy, weak civil society, election risks and coordinated disinformation networks. These are the Board’s cautions about the model and prospective expansion, not a measured comparison with the former U.S. system.
A 2025 preprint by Borenstein, Warren, Elliott and Augenstein analyzed Community Notes on X, not Meta. It reported that notes about posts tied to broader misinformation narratives were twice as likely to cite fact-checking sources as other notes, and that its analysis found citations to fact-checking sources up to five times more often than previously reported. Those findings concern a different platform and cannot establish Meta’s outcomes.
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