SAN FRANCISCO - Social media giant Meta announced it would begin testing its new "Community Notes" feature across its platforms in the United States next week, as it shifts away from third-party fact-checking toward a crowd-sourced approach to content moderation.
Meta's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the new system -- popularized by the Elon Musk-owned platform X -- in January as he appeared to align himself with the incoming Trump administration, including naming a Republican as the company's head of public policy.
The change of system, which Meta will start testing on Tuesday, came after years of criticism from supporters of President Donald Trump, among others, that conservative voices were being censored or stifled under the guise of fighting misinformation, a claim professional fact-checkers vehemently reject.
Meta has also scaled back its diversity initiatives and relaxed content moderation rules on Facebook and Instagram, particularly regarding certain forms of hostile speech.
AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact-checking scheme.
The initiative will allow users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads to write and rate contextual notes on various content.
Meta said approximately 200,000 potential contributors in the United States have already signed up across the three platforms. The new approach requires contributors to be over 18 with accounts more than six months old that are in good standing.
During the testing period, notes will not immediately appear on content and the company will gradually admit people from the waitlist and thoroughly test the system before public implementation.