Ending Fact-Checking on Meta Will Result in Real-world Harm: IFCN in Open Letter

The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), in an open letter to Meta's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg, said that the rollback of the third-party fact-checking program will undo the work that has been done in close to a decade to promote accurate information online.

This letter came as response to Zuckerberg's announcement about the movie in an Instagram post on 7 January, where he said that the company will be "replacing fact-checkers with Community Notes" in the United States.

In the clip, he said that the move came into effect because of concerns about "too much censorship" and that fact-checkers have been too “politically biased”. His full statement can be read here.

The letter was signed by at least 70 organisations at the time this report was written, including The Quint.

Challenging Zuckerberg's claims of biasness, IFCN highlighted that all fact-checking partners had to meet strict nonpartisanship standards, which meant that the organisations had no political affiliations. In fact, there is an annual verification that each news organisation has to go through.

To add to this, the platform had decided to exclude political candidates and politicians from getting fact-checked as a precaution. This safety net shielded these individuals even when they spread false information on their respective social media handles. The fact-checkers had argued that even politicians should be fact-checked like anyone else.

The letter also raised concerns that the new Community Notes program, which Meta plans to adopt, may not provide the same level of reliability, as demonstrated by similar initiatives on other platforms like X. The IFCN instead suggested that Community Notes could work alongside professional fact-checking to improve information accuracy.

Supporting this statement of fact-checkers working along with Community Notes, IFCN said, "The need for this is great: If people believe social media platforms are full of scams and hoaxes, they won’t want to spend time there or do business on them."

Highlighting the real-life impact that the rollback can have in different countries, the open letter said, "Some of these countries are highly vulnerable to misinformation that spurs political instability, election interference, mob violence and even genocide. If Meta decides to stop the program worldwide, it is almost certain to result in real-world harm in many places."

Responding to Zuckerberg's announcement, International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) Director Angie Drobnic Holan said that "fact-checking journalism has never censored or removed posts; it's added information and context to controversial claims, and it's debunked hoax content and conspiracy theories."