Meta always said that its fact-checking program was working and that its users valued it.
The social media giant often trumpeted its efforts, hiring experts to do the fact checking and telling governments how well it was working, and that it was a responsible part of the community.
Now Meta says that fact-checking is riddled with political bias and must be replaced with a community led system.
Independent fact checking units working under contract to Meta in Australia will continue their work, for now, despite the social media company moving to a community-led system in the US. "Before rolling out any changes to our fact checking program outside the US, we will carefully consider our obligations in each country, including Australia," Meta said.
Meta's fact checking was started in 2016 in response to rampant false news, misinformation and disinformation.
Meta almost a year ago said it has since 2016 invested more than $20 billion into safety and security and quadrupled the size of the global team to around 40,000 people. This includes 15,000 content reviewers who review content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads in more than 80 languages.
“Meta is committed to stopping the spread of misinformation,” Meta said in a submission to a parliamentary inquiry, the Joint Select Committee on Social Media and Australian Society, last year.
“We use a combination of enforcement technology, human review and independent fact checkers to identify, review and take action on this type of content. Our strategy for misinformation comprises three main pillars: remove, reduce and inform.
“We know our third-party fact-checking program is working and people find value in the warning screens we apply to content after a fact-checking partner has rated it.
“We surveyed people who had seen these warning screens on-platform and found that 74% of people thought they saw the right amount or were open to seeing more false information labels, with 63% of people thinking they were applied fairly.”
In Australia, Meta still has contracts for fact checking with national newswire AAP and with RMIT University.
However, these are unlikely to be renewed judging from a decision in the US to dismantle fact checking in favour of a community led solution.
Meta is a founding member and signatory to the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation.
In the year to December 2023, Meta displayed warnings on over 9.2 million distinct pieces of content on Facebook, and more than 510,000 on Instagram, in Australia (including reshares) based on the work of third-party fact-checking partners.
This compares with 9 million on Facebook in Australia for 2022, and a global number for 2021 on Facebook of 190 million.
Meta said it took action on more than 9,700 pieces of content across Facebook and Instagram In Australia for violating Misinformation policies.
More than 75,000 ads in Australia were removed for not complying with Social Issues, Elections and Politics ads policy.
Meta then said Australians also benefit from Meta’s international approach to fact-checking. An Australian user will see a warning label on content that has been fact-checked by a third-party fact-checking partner.
“Content found to be false by our international fact-checking partners (including our Australian fact-checkers will be demoted in an Australian user’s Feed, and will not be recommended, meaning there is less chance of them seeing it,” Meta said.
“The focus of Meta’s fact-checking program is to identify and address viral misinformation, particularly clear hoaxes that have no basis in fact.
“Fact-checking partners prioritise probably false claims that are timely, trending and consequential.
“Meta applies a warning label to content found to be misinformation by the fact-checking organisations.
“Once fact-checkers have determined that a piece of content contains misinformation, Meta uses technology to identify near-identical versions of that content across Facebook, Instagram and Threads.
“Fact-check labels are only applied to near-identical versions of content that has already been rated; this means that labels are not applied to content that makes a similar claim but is differently expressed.”
ACMA (Australian Communications and Media Authority) reported in September 2024 efforts by digital platforms, including Meta, under voluntary arrangements to combat misinformation and disinformation.
“Australians continue to be concerned about misinformation on digital platforms, with levels of concern among the highest in the world,” ACMA said.
“Recent data indicates that 75% of Australians are ‘concerned’ about misinformation and disinformation (referred to collectively as misinformation) – an increase from 69% in 2022.1
“Most recently in Australia, these concerns have focused on misinformation about the identity of the killer of 6 people in the Bondi Junction Mall in March 2024.
“The increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) has made it easier for bad actors to create and disseminate misinformation at scale, exacerbating the difficulties in determining whether content is artificially generated.
“Gen AI continues to play an influential role in the propagation of inauthentic behaviours. In 2024, with around half of the world’s population voting in elections, tackling this issue remains a priority.”
The turnaround in policy at Meta came with an accusation that the fact checkers themselves were biased.
“After (now president-elect Donald) Trump first got elected in 2016, the legacy media wrote nonstop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy,” Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg said.
“We tried in good faith to address those concerns without becoming the arbiters of truth.
“But the fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created, especially in the US. So over the next couple of months we’re going to phase in a more comprehensive Community Notes system.”
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